Parallels
by Feeling of Love and Hate
Summary: Five times Odd seemed to know a bit more than the rest of the gang about the future and one time he's just as clueless as them. *AU*
1. Code: Earth

**Notes:** This a little series I wanted to create for awhile. It's short and I didn't how know to present it. I decided to use this type of format because it shows different pieces of the actual story. For this story, Odd will not be presenting it. Others will present the story in their own point-of-views. If the readers want, I can continue with other pieces of the story that I make mention of and/or write out. I do enjoy this story, and I hope you have too. Thank you for reading.

 _ **Additional Note 10/12/18:**_ Tweaked and edited. Tried to search for repetitive sentences, incorrect words, improper phrases, and simple spelling errors.

* * *

 **1\. Code: Earth**

The plan was simple in Ulrich's mind. Get Principal Delmas to approve Aelita's files so she could attend school. Jeremie ran the program in trial, now he was ready to bring Aelita to the real world. Odd agreed with him to confront Delmas in the morning, and right now the two were standing in the office of Sissi's father.

"Now tell me, what is your cousin's name Odd?"

Looking out from the corner of his eye, Ulrich spotted Odd's usual poker face when it came to the lies he's told over the school year, "Aelita, her name's Aelita Schaeffer."

"Where does she come from?"

The purple loving teen responded simply, "She's from Switzerland." The brunette never really questioned why Odd seemed to insist Jeremie write all the extra information on the fake forms the Einstein created. When Jeremie and him questioned the svelte teen, he only answered that his father's brother's last name was Schaeffer and if anything happened, he could ask his Uncle and Aunt to cover for them and act like Aelita was their child.

Delmas straightened himself in his chair, "Well, all her forms seem to be in order. And your parents have recommended her highly. So I see no reason why she cannot attend school here. Let me know when she arrives." With that, both boys took off to the halls with smiles on their faces.

"Yes!" Ulrich threw his hands into the air. Odd held out his hands in a low high-five, and Ulrich slapped them with glee. Odd laughed once he did so, falling into a walking pace between them. They were giggling idiots as they continued their pace. Well, all until Jim stopped them.

"Well, what are you two up to, huh? You know this building is off limits to students, _especially_ at eight in the morning!"

Odd's smile grew just a bit cheekier as he chirped, "My cousin's coming to school here soon. It'll be nice to see another familiar face, y'know? Just had to check in with the Principal to let him know she's coming pretty soon. We made an appointment with him, you see."

Jim started to chuckle, "Oh what a lame excuse, ha ha. What do you think I am, an idiot?"

Ulrich stifled a laugh as Odd sweetly replied, "Well. . . We _did_ made an appointment with Principal Delmas about my cousin coming to school. You just don't believe what I said."

"Quiet," Jim growled, "I bet you think I'm not onto your pranks with Jeremie and Yumi. You disappear into the park like some sort of magic," As Jim ranted, Ulrich glanced to see Odd shrug with a _'well-he's-ranting-might-as-well-accept-it'_ face. Ulrich covered his mouth to hide his snicker as Jim went on, oblivious to the duo, "You plot in your rooms-!"

"Hey," Odd interrupted, a cheshire cat-like smile on his face, "It's not a crime to talk with your friends about your cousin. We even video chat sometimes, don't you know?"

Ulrich blinked as Jim reared his head towards him, "Oh, is that so?"

"Y-Yeah," He added as soon as his voice came back to him, surprised at what Odd just said, "She's pretty nice."

Odd grinned, "We inspired her to come here and see what France is like. She lives out some place in Switzerland and goes to a public school, so it'd be a nice change for her to go to a private school and see what it's like. She knows she'll enjoy it here with friends like mine."

Jim shook his head, astonishment clear on his face as Ulrich quickly added on, "Yeah. All of us really like her. We can't wait to see her in person."

"Well. . . maybe you're not making pranks. Now you listen up, I will figure out what you guys are _really_ up too. Even if it _is_ talking with your cousin, it still doesn't make sense for you four to disappear into the forest."

The blonde with a purple splotch had on a shameless smile, "We hook up Jeremie's laptop to show off the nature in the forest. She doesn't like it that much, but she still finds beauty in the forest outside of school."

Jim spluttered, at a loss for words before catching himself and answering, "W-Well, to the cafeteria. Hurry up!"

* * *

"What you said back there. . . how did you make that up so fast?" Ulrich questioned.

Odd shrugged, "Simple. Just use the truth and twist it a little, it makes the best lie. At least he bought it, or I think he did."

The brunette peered at his best friend, "You know what I think? Even with the lie you told him, we still need to be careful. With him playing detective, he may find the secret passage."

A smile appeared on the blonde's face, "Don't worry yourself silly like that Ulrich, it'll never happen."

"Why do you-?"

" _Hey guys_!" Yumi's voice echoed. The Japanese girl ran towards them, catching her breath before happily saying, "Great news, my parents said okay!"

Dismissing what the cat-boy had said as some sort of joke that he didn't understand, Ulrich grinned lightly, "So did the Principal. Odd, that was a very good letter that you faked from your parents."

"Yeah. Can't say I'm too proud of what I did, but it was for a good cause."

 _ **Ring! Ring!**_

Ulrich quickly answered his phone, "Oh Jeremie, what's up?"

 _"Can you guys come to my room quickly? I want all of us to be there when we tell Aelita's she's coming to Earth."_

"Okay, be right there," Glancing to his friends, they immediately understood the message. Taking off, all three headed to Jeremie's dorm.

* * *

Jeremie played around with the materialization program once they arrived. All three of them crowded around, Odd alone on Jeremie's right and both him and Yumi on Jeremie's left. The Einstein clicked away on his computer as Odd played around with the many disk cases on Jeremie's desk, "Y'know Einstein, you really need to organize your disks."

"I'll do it later, Odd. Now put them down." The svelte blonde shrugged, setting down the grouped disk cases into a neat pile next to the computer. Jeremie groaned as he looked at the tower of cases, "Ugh, Odd. Did you really have to do that?"

Amber eyes rolled at the comment, "Not like you'd get around to it. We're getting Aelita later today with the program, right?"

Jeremie sighed, "Just wait a little bit longer. I'm almost done checking the program." Before he continued on though, he glared at Odd and dismantled the case pile, setting each disk case back into different places than they were before.

It was always like that with the two. Ever since the beginning of going to Lyoko and fighting XANA while trying to free Aelita, Odd just. . . didn't like Jeremie. Whenever Ulrich asked him about it at night, which was pretty often since they would always argue or get snarky with each other, Odd would either change the subject or dismiss it. No matter what Ulrich and Yumi (for the geisha didn't like hearing their bickering at the table) did, the two didn't get along.

After a few moments of typing and clicking, a green plus sign flashed on Jeremie's screen. "That's it! We got it!" Glee grew in Jeremie's eye, "It works! IT WORKS!" He softened his voice, looking like he was going to curl in on himself, "I almost can't believe it..."

All three fighters of Lyoko cheered, hugging Jeremie. Odd lost the look of annoyance, instead a grin plastered on his face like it was meant to be there. Minutes later, Jeremie carefully closed out of the program and pulled up the one to speak with Aelita, _"Okay! Tell me what the good news is!"_

"Aelita," Jeremie started, clapping his hands together, "I don't know how to tell you this but believe it or not, we're waiting for you here."

 _"Really?!"_ The program's face gained a look of pure joy. For an artificial intelligence, she could sure act like a human sometimes. Silently, Ulrich questioned the whole situation. Who would create an artificial intelligence inside a supercomputer to fight off a virus?

"Really!" The gang voiced, smiles on their faces.

 _"The materialization is going to work!?"_

"Yup!" Jeremie held up a disk, smile on his face, "It's all in here, and I can tell you it was really complicated-"

Odd held up a hand, "Ah ah ah, do you have subtitles for that?"

Jeremie stopped himself, frown on his face even as Ulrich couldn't help but yawn at the explanation the glasses wearing blonde was going to go through, "Long story short, it works."

 _"Oh Jeremie, that's so great!"_ Aelita beamed, _"I can't believe it's true!"_

"Better get used to it fast," Odd winked, "Cause it's time to make the big jump! Time to finally see the real world and what it's all like and say bye bye to XANA!" Odd clapped his hands together, silly smile on his face, "And I bet the Einstein would _love_ to show you the town! And Yumi can show you her home, and you can see Kiwi and-"

Ulrich chortled, "You sound like you're just as excited as her."

"Can't help it," Odd let out a cheery laugh, "She's my cousin, remember?" Yumi stiffened her giggle while Ulrich chuckled. The svelte boy sounded so _used_ to the fact that Aelita was her cousin, it was surprising to hear the words come out of his mouth. It was good, the brunette guessed, since they'd have to make up the lies for a long time to keep her around them forever.

"Hold on," Jeremie frowned, even with red on his cheeks, "It's not that simple. First I got to set up the program in the supercomputer, then Aelita would have to get to the passage tower in Lyoko's Forest region. That's where she'll get devirtualized. Before she appears in the flesh for the first time inside one of the scanners!"

 _"In that case I'm off to the Forest right now!"_

"Okay!" Jeremie tapped at the keyboard once more, "And we'll go to class in the meantime. And as for afterwords, the factory."

 _"I'll see you later, my friends."_ With a salute, Aelita stared at them with a smile.

Jeremie smiled, "We'll be five for dinner tonight." After those words, Aelita disappeared off the screen. Odd immediately abandoned the dorm, opening the door and looking off into the halls. Quickly, Ulrich and Yumi followed along as Jeremie lingered in the room a bit longer.

Jeremie took off with a disk case in hand, followed along by the fighting trio. Jim slid into the hallway at that moment, making Jeremie slide into a halt. Yumi crashed into him, followed by Ulrich then finally, Odd crashed into them all.

"What's wrong? Up to no good, aren't ya?"

"Nope," Odd slid into the front of the four casually, "We were talking with Aelita again. She's going to be here tonight, Jim! Can't you believe it?"

Jeremie gaped at Odd with surprise as Ulrich gulped. He and Odd totally forgot to tell Yumi and Jeremie about the excuse the svelte blonde came up with earlier. Jim, on the other hand, looked uncomfortable once again, "A-Ah, well. Hurry up back to class, _now_!" He then gave a dirty look at them, "You shouldn't be talking with someone when you have your own classes to worry about! Now hurry on!"

The four fled right as Principal Delmas walked into the dorms. Ignoring the hushed yelling between the two, Ulrich became attentive to his friend's own conversation. "You told Jim about Lyoko!?" Jeremie hissed.

"No, all I told him was that we talk to my cousin through video chat. You guys like her. We show her the forest sometimes, that's why we disappear there sometimes," Odd grumbled.

"Why do you act like the cousin excuse is going to work so well?!"

The purple loving blonde frowned, "Trust me on this one Jeremie, I know it'll work. We just have to play it out and we'll be fine."

"I agree," Yumi added in right as Jeremie opened his mouth, "Playing it out is all we can do once Aelita arrives. Remember, she's an artificial intelligence. She doesn't have any parents, using Odd's family is the best bet for now."

Ulrich weakly smiled to the genius, "Saying it so many times can convince others that it is the truth." With those words, they finally arrived to the courtyard. Yumi split away from the group to head to class and Odd ran ahead to be there before class started.

"But also saying it so many times can convince the person who says it to be true." Jeremie muttered, voice bitter as he walked close with Ulrich to Mrs. Hertz's class.

* * *

"Yumi?"

 _"Yes, Ulrich? What's new?"_

 _"_ Yumi come to the park, it's urgent."

 _"Okay, be right there."_ Ulrich quickly pocketed his phone once the raven hung up the phone. The three boys charged off school campus, heading straight to the forest. Yumi quickly caught up to them, running beside them, "Mind telling me what's going on?"

"XANA's at it again." Jeremie responded immediately.

Odd jogged beside them, "He knows the end is near, and he's not going down without a fight!" The quartet continued their sprint. A few moments later, they arrived to a familiar manhole. Looking around for a few seconds to make sure no one was around, they moved the manhole and headed down below. Once they all gathered below, they grabbed their skateboards—in Jeremie's case, his scooter—and headed towards the factory.

* * *

Heading inside the scanners, all three fighters walked into their places. Ulrich took to the left scanner, Yumi to the right scanner and Odd to the middle. Ulrich dismissed Odd's usual frown at the sight of the middle scanner, he always did that ever since the second time he was virtualized. It wasn't something to be questioned, people have their own experience with the scanners. For Ulrich, it felt like a rush. Sometimes the rush would disappear, other times it would be there once he entered the small cylinder capsule.

The doors closed in front of him as Jeremie babbled the usual sequence above. In moments, winds blew from below and a sense of nothingness consumed him. His vision darkened for a moment, then it allowed him to greet the Forest Sector's wide scenery of trees and green ground. The virtualization process finally finished, and the trio landed onto the ground. They took off quickly, heading towards Aelita's location.

"Okay Jeremie, we're here!" Ulrich voiced once they closed in Aelita.

 _"That's great,"_ The Einstein's voice echoed around them, _"Get ready guys, cause I'm launching the materialization program immediately,"_ Followed by that, Jeremie let out a surprised yelp. Then he groaned over the mic. Ulrich gazed over each of the warriors, seeing Yumi's fingers itch to her fan, Aelita's face decorated in a mixture of emotions ranging from excitement to worry. Then he caught Odd flashing a grimace that quickly went away. Why did he suddenly look embarrassed at that moment? _"Oh no! What have I done?!"_

"Problem, Jeremie?" Yumi asked.

 _"I inserted the wrong disk!"_ Odd shook his head as the genius groaned, _"It's Odd's dumb disk instead of the program. . . Stop!"_ Jeremie growled, clearly annoyed by the video, _"I have to go back to the dorm!"_

"Okay," Yumi nodded as if Jeremie could see it, "But hurry!"

"And Jeremie!" Odd cupped his hands, "I know you have to hurry, but just be careful!" The blonde outside of Lyoko groaned into his mic, before his voice was gone.

Ulrich turned to the cat-boy, "You made a video?"

Odd looked like he wanted to melt at that moment, "Well, yeah. It's not my best piece of work though."

"What's the title?"

"Break break break dance."

Yumi sighed, "Alright, enough fooling around. We got some cleaning up to do."

"Sir, yes sir!" Both Odd and Ulrich voiced, grins on their faces.

With that, the trio split up. Yumi on the left, him and Odd to the right. Odd raised his paw during the run and shot an arrow right as Yumi took out her fan and threw it. Ulrich quickly unsheathed his katana, " _Super Sprint!"_ He took off in a yellow blur, followed by the first and second Bloks devirtualizing due to the ranged warriors attacks. The brunette sliced into the third one, allowing it to combust in white pixels.

"This is too easy." Odd chirped, a relaxed smile on his face.

Yumi waved her hand, "Aelita, the passage is clear! You can go!" Aelita quickly took off from her hiding place, heading towards the trio.

"Come on, we can all stay in the tower until Jeremie arrives back."

* * *

After what felt like to be forty-five minutes, Aelita started to call for Jeremie once again. It was like the genius disappeared off the radar! "Where can he be?" She asked.

"Forty five minutes sure is a long time to pick up a disk." Ulrich noted.

"I sure hope nothing happened to him." Yumi added.

"Come on," Odd waved his paw, "Don't be gloom and doom. Everything will be okay. We'll just wait it out a bit longer. He'll be here soon enough." Then suddenly, the tower began to shake. All four let out surprised yells, trying to keep balance.

"What was that?!" Yumi shouted, followed by Odd taking off out of the tower. Ulrich quickly followed, as did Yumi. A Megatank faced them, perfectly aimed at the tower. Ulrich dragged his sword out from its sheathe as the trio stared the monster down. Its eye opened, charging up a laser. Odd jumped right as it shot, paw aimed straight at it.

"Go!" He shouted, followed by a laser arrow heading towards the sphere shaped creature. The Megatank closed its shell, hiding its weak point. Once Odd made contact with the ground again, the Megatank opened up. Odd took off on all fours, flipping himself over and shooting once again, "Come on, take that!"

The Megatank closed its shell again, Odd falling gracefully to the ground on all fours. The cat-boy growled, "Oh come on!" The Megatank quickly shot open, charging up a blast. It released it as quick as it was charged, forcing Odd to roll along the ground. Ulrich and Yumi split up from the blast, managing to dodge the large laser blast.

 _"Aelita, is everything okay?"_ Unable to hear her response from beyond the tower, Ulrich watched as Odd shot off two more arrows at the opened Megatank. As quick as they flew in the air, the Megatank closed itself and allowed the arrows to pelt its shell, _"It's a long story. Too long, but I've got the program! Now let's cross our fingers and hope it works okay. I'm launching it!"_

"Follow me, Odd!" Yumi called, taking off into a sprint directly towards the Megatank. Odd followed along close by. The Megatank shot open, releasing a blast that quickly devirtualized Yumi. Odd flung himself above the Megatank, landing on all fours behind it. He let out a cat-growl at the monster, raising his paw right as the creature charged another blast. Within seconds both Odd and the Megatank devirtualized, the former from the laser blast and the latter by a laser arrow.

Ulrich grimaced at the sight of his friends disappear, but no matter. He stayed close to the tower, watching the area in front of him with keen eyes. _"Alright Ulrich, it's up to you. There's one behind you, to your left!"_ The brunette took off in a super sprint, eyes narrowed at the new monster that rolled over and shot right at the tower after a quick charge, _"You have to protect the tower!"_

"Understood, Jeremie!" With his sword unsheathed, he sprinted to the open monster. It charged up its beam, and right when Ulrich made it close enough to dig his sword into the monster's eye, it released its blast. Ulrich positioned his sword in front of the creature's blast, a grimace on his face as he was pushed back towards the tower. He grunted, trying to keep himself in place. As long as he held the blast, it wouldn't hit the tower while Jeremie's program ran.

 _"Hold on Ulrich, just a few more seconds!"_ Jeremie voiced. Ulrich grunted, virtual body straining to hold back the dangerous blast. _"I'm almost ready, Aelita! Get into position on the platform."_ Ulrich had to guess she was following the directions, for Jeremie's voice echoed, _"Alright, ready to take the big jump?"_

Catching sight of the tower itself closing in from the corner of his eye, Ulrich grunted as he fought the beam. He had to hold on, just a bit longer. _"Then here we go. Code: Earth."_

With those words, Ulrich let out a shout as his sword gave away. The blast hit him straight on, and his body disappeared into pixels as it crashed into the tower. The sense of nothingness consumed him once more, before his vision allowed him to greet the scanner room once more. He stumbled out, clutching the side of the scanner for support.

The elevator ran for a moment, before it opened to show Odd, Jeremie, Yumi and surprisingly, Jim. The raven ran towards him, quickly becoming his support as the right scanner closed nearby. It let out a soft hum as it began to work before sliding open. The light was blinding for a moment, as Ulrich closed his eyes for the moment. Once he opened them, smoke cleared away from the bottom of the scanner. On it was a girl with pink hair dressed in a tan shirt with a red jacket, a black skirt and red boots.

Seeing the pinkette, Jeremie spoke with awe, "She's here at last," She perked up, a smile on her face while her apple green eyes glowed with happiness, "Welcome to Earth."

All four children whooped with joy, especially Jeremie. Ulrich cheered the best he could, even with being as tired as he was. Jim continued to stare at Aelita in awe as Yumi smiled brightly at the pinkette. Odd laughed, his amber eyes glowing with delight. It was a moment they couldn't forget, for it was an accomplishment. Their friend was there in the flesh, on Earth.

Jeremie limped forward, reaching out his hand Aelita. The girl took it, stumbling as she was brought to stand. She was in her own excitement, giggling in delight as Yumi swung her other arm around her shoulder. Ulrich broke away from the geisha, having enough strength to stand again. As both Yumi and Jeremie talked excitedly with the materialized girl, Ulrich gazed towards his best friend. The svelte blonde had a smile on his face as he looked at his friends, but his eyes. . .

. . .they looked so sad.


	2. New Order

**Notes:** In this chapter you will see major changes than the actual episode. This is why I labeled the story as "AU". Thank you for reading and your support, I hope you enjoyed the story.

 _ **Additional Notes:**_ Edited as of 10/12/18, check chapter one's notes to see what I went looking for per each chapter.

* * *

 **2\. New Order**

It was time to test the new programs Jeremie recently created. He had given Odd a hover-board he dubbed the Overboard, a hover-bike to Ulrich called the Overbike, and to Yumi a hover-scooter called the Overwing. The geisha had tested her vehicle with Aelita in tow, waiting at the "finish line" as both Odd and Ulrich dubbed it.

The two were planning to get used to their vehicles by riding them around the Desert Sector. It was a smart idea for the both of them, but the vehicles were still a bit "buggy" as Jeremie had put it.

 _"Odd,"_ Jeremie's voice projected itself in a scolding tone, " _I didn't have time to perfect the program that calculates trajectory."_ Right as those words echoed around, a certain purple cat-boy zoomed out of the giant split rock far away. The Overboard hummed as it slid over a rock, throwing Odd into the air. The cat-boy let out a shout of glee as he leaned down and shoved his paws down. With the sudden shift in weight, the hover-board tipped downwards before it could continue sailing in the air. The blonde straightened out his weight right as he was going to hit the ground, luckily breaking his fall as it balanced itself out.

"Don't worry Einstein," Odd saluted the sky, "Got it all covered down here." He flashed a cheeky smile as Ulrich pulled up close to him. Yumi drove by, getting off with Aelita once they deemed the cat-boy was unharmed. All three vehicles disappeared, since they weren't needed anymore.

"Nice save," Ulrich complimented.

Odd beamed, "Yeah, I surfed a few times back when I went to Varazze. It was pretty nice to surf there during the summer. That, and with how many times I skateboard it's pretty easy to maneuver something like the Overboard. Though," He rubbed the back of his head, "I still think I need to practice riding it a bit," Then he winked at the samurai, "Why don't you give the Overboard a try? I'll try out the Overbike."

Ulrich motioned his hand in a wave, "Surfing really isn't my thing."

 _"Sorry to interrupt your fascinating conversation, but it looks like XANA has spotted you. There's something coming your way! . . .But that's really weird. I-I can't tell what it is."_

"Hey!" The geisha voiced, eyes catching something charging their way, "What's that?" She pointed at the creature that walked on all fours, its face a light shade of white with XANA's eye. It's body was colored a dark grey with a very light shade of green-white on its belly. Its arms were light brown with four grey ends.

"I don't know," Ulrich answered, "But it looks like trouble, big time."

"I've never seen a monster like that one before." Aelita admitted, worry on her face, "XANA must have just created it!"

 _"In any case, it says here it has more life points than the others!"_

The creature finally halted before the warriors, leaning down one of its legs to raise its arms to show off blasters. "Jeremie, how about reprogramming our vehicles?"

 _"I'm on it already,"_ Jeremie responded, _"But it'll take some time!"_ Aelita took off the opposite way with those words.

Ulrich stepped forward, "On my signal."

"I'll go first." Yumi voiced, standing next to the samurai.

"And I'm gonna keep it busy." Odd added.

The creature stared them down a little longer, before Ulrich shouted, "Now!" The samurai drew his katana right as the monster shot. He deflected the lasers until the barrage paused, followed by Yumi flipping over the creature. The monster growled, turning its face towards the geisha who drew her fan. She flicked it, allowing it to open before throwing it towards the four-legged creature.

It raised its guns, shooting down the fan as a means to stop it. Jeremie began to talk once more, his voice directed at Aelita, " _Aelita, there's a deactivated tower not far away. Direction north by northwest. Get out of there and come and meet me, but hurry up!"_

"Hey, you overgrown spider!" Odd chirped, tail swaying as he stared down the monster, "Looking for me?" The creature let out another garbled roar as the cat-boy fled to the nearest rock pillar. He began to climb it once XANA's monster began to shoot lasers towards him. He reached the top, perching himself onto the rock. He aimed his paw, eyes narrowed. " _Laser arrow!"_ He shouted, shooting at the spider-like creature.

It clambered forward, raising itself onto two legs to shoot at the pillar, "It's walking?!" Ulrich shouted, eyes wide. Odd let out a cry as the rock gave out, sending him flying to the ground. The monster took the chance to shoot at Odd's chest, making the cat-boy whine as he stumbled to the desert ground.

 _"Odd, you just lost twenty life points! That thing has a powerful laser."_ Jeremie noted. Yumi watched as Odd dragged himself into a crouch.

The cat-boy wore a grimace, eyes narrowing at the monster with something close to animosity, "Yeah, and it's annoying too." The spider-like monster laid on one of its legs again, aiming its guns at Ulrich. The samurai began to deflect the lasers, all until he was distracted with Aelita heading towards the deactivated tower. The laser's slammed into the brunette, making the chocolate eyed warrior explode into a display of pixels.

 _"Vehicles are ready."_

"It's about time," Odd tutted, glaring at the monster, "I'm getting sick of looking at this thing." He did a quick flip, landing on the re-virtualized Overboard.

 _"Come on,"_ Jeremie huffed, _"I'm doing my best."_

Yumi began to back flip to hers, quickly landing on the grey hover-scooter, "Let me go first." Odd said, waving a paw at himself.

"Go on, I'll be watching you." Yumi encouraged. The cat-boy took off on the Overboard, flying in the air. He spun himself around after turning upside down, shooting laser arrows down at the monster. It let out a fearsome cry, releasing its own lasers to combat the cat. After a moment, Odd slammed the hover-board into its face, bouncing off to nearly hit the land with his ride again.

"This thing's really getting on my nerves," Odd whined as he turned back to face monster.

Yumi quickly flew close, seeing that the purple loving teen was having a hard time, "Need a hand?" The spider-like creature charged its shots in both arms, releasing them towards the duo. The geisha screamed as her Overwing took the blow, flipping her upside down in the air before devirtualizing. She gracefully fell back to the ground, flipping as soon as the monster started to shoot at her again. She whipped out her fan, throwing it but the same result happened. It shot her fan out of the air and smacked her right in her stomach.

Her body greeted the feeling of emptiness as she watched herself erupt in blue pixels.

* * *

She slammed her fists into the scanner floor, a growl leaving her, "Great." She couldn't blame herself, none of them knew how to combat that thing. She took a deep breath, allowing herself a few moments to recover from the sudden devirtualization. Yumi pulled herself to a stand, walking out of the scanner slowly. "Hmm. . . I wonder how Odd's fairing." She muttered to herself, recalling the cat-boy's annoyance at the new monster.

Yumi took off to the elevator, pressing the button. She waited for a little bit, watching as it closed its door and brought her up a floor. When she arrived to the supercomputer room, it was to Jeremie shouting, "You did it! You destroyed it!"

She walked close to the brunette, as he was looking giddy while Aelita looked awed, "Odd destroyed XANA's new monster," Ulrich commented to the geisha, "Jeremie's freaking out about it." Yumi smiled lightly.

"Well, we all should be happy. If one of us can defeat that new creature, soon all of us can," She laid a hand on her hip, "That'll show XANA that we aren't to be underestimated."

"I'm bringing you back in," Jeremie commented, fingers running over the keyboard in a hurry. A few moments later, Odd walked out of the elevator with his hands behind his head.

The blonde with a purple splotch had a big grin on his face, "It _was_ pretty annoying, but in the end it's gone."

Jeremie frowned, "Sadly, even with you beating XANA's new monster. He's still programming new monsters to fight us. It means our troubles have just begun."

Odd turned to the other blonde, "One thing's for sure, Einstein. You _have_ to work on programming our vehicles faster. If I didn't have my Overboard, I wouldn't have stood a chance against those _Tarantulas_." With that, he grinned impishly as he wiggled his hand like a spider.

"Tarantulas?" Yumi asked.

"Tarantulas," Odd nodded at the group, "It's a name for the new monsters he created. I like to give my enemies a name." He beamed.

Jeremie leaned back into his chair, "What worries me is that our friend XANA has obviously found a way to increase his power."

Ulrich leaned forward, "You think he's still evolving?"

"That may be so. In any case, from now on we have to be ready for anything _and_ everything."

Aelita stood up, "Maybe I better get back to Lyoko," She looked worriedly at the gang, "If XANA activates a tower I better be there."

Jeremie looked towards his friends, a small smile on his face, "Uh... should we tell her?"

The pinkette perked up, "Of course we should tell her! Why keep good news like that a secret?" Yumi beamed. After all, Aelita was their friend. She deserved to know what surprise they have for her.

"Keep what a secret? Would someone please tell me what's going on?"

Everyone smiled at one another as Jeremie spoke up, "Over the past few weeks I spent all of my time developing the vehicles _and_ an anti-virus to free you from XANA. And I also perfected a whole new program for detecting activated tower."

"A super scanner," Odd jumped in with a small smile, "Much more accurate than the old one."

"With instant detection. Meaning you don't have to stay on Lyoko all the time!"

Aelita's apple green eyes widened, a smile on her face, "So that means I'm going to live-"

Ulrich grinned, "Here, with us. We already enrolled you as a boarder at the school."

Yumi walked close to the pinkette, a smile on her face, "Everything's all set up. We wanted to surprise you."

Aelita looked to have been at a loss of words, stuttering over what she was trying to say. Then, she finally spoke up, "T-This is so wonderful! I can't believe it!"

* * *

The next day, Yumi found herself in a crowd of boys and girls for the school field trip between eighth and ninth graders. Mrs. Hertz wanted the students to photograph and draw plant life for a botanic scrapbook project. "Hey," Someone spoke up close to her. Her charcoal black eyes met silver ones. The boy, dressed in a long sleeved red shirt with a black one above it, blue jeans and a belt, and black boots, "Nice to see you again, Yumi."

The Japanese teen perked up, a smile forming on her face, "William!" She greeted, "It's nice to see you too."

Looking sheepish, the raven smiled lightly at her, "I was going to ask you to be my partner, but a friend asked me first. Mrs. Hertz was okay with me pairing up with this guy. First come, first serve I guess."

Yumi tilted her head, "And who was it?"

"Odd Della Robbia," William shrugged, "He's a nice guy. I hope there's no hard feelings for us not being partners."

"No hard feelings," Yumi replied, a smile on her face, "I have some other friends, one of them can be my partner instead. You and Odd do your best on the assignment. Good luck!" She took off, heading over to the arches. Confusion quickly found its way to her face as she wondered how Odd would even get to know William. The boy had recently come to attend Kadic, and he really didn't make himself well-known to the school. What most people knew was that he got expelled from his other school putting up posters all around. Or at least, that's what the rumors said.

Mulling it over, she was snapped out of her thoughts with Ulrich's voice saying, "Yumi, you and I have to- _Yumi_!" The brunette sounded surprised at seeing her. She smiled lightly at him as he continued on, "There's something I have to tell you."

"What is it?" She asked.

Ulrich stared at her for a moment, before taking in a deep breath. He dragged his fingers through his hair, "I don't know how to say this but, but uh-"

"Hey you two!" Odd chirped, walking on over. William followed along, brightening at the sight of Yumi. Ulrich glared down his best friend, "Can't help but see that you two are partnering up, right?"

Yumi snapped her fingers, gazing at the chocolate eyed brunette, "Yeah! I wanted to ask if you wanted to work on the project with me."

"Sure! I-I'd like that." With a weak smile, Ulrich beamed at the geisha.

William grinned, "I bet your glad you got her as a partner before anyone else."

Ulrich gazed at the male raven, his smile diminishing to a frown in a heartbeat, "And who are you?"

Before Yumi could introduce him, Odd beat her too it, "This is William." He waved at the teen, "He's my partner for the field trip. And a good buddy of mine. We've been hanging around for awhile now, I'm surprised I didn't introduce you to him yet Ulrich."

"Yeah, this guy showed me around when I got here." William grinned, bringing Odd into a headlock. The blonde bubbled with laughter, fighting to escape his hold, "He's a great friend."

"Friends don't headlock each other," Odd humored, a playful smile on his face.

William stuck out his tongue, "And friends don't bombard their friends shirts in a rainbow of colors. You only gave me the option of a couple of shirts before they turn hot pink, white and sky blue!"

The cat-boy sniffed as he stretched his arms to mess with his bag. Kiwi shuffled around inside, making the boy quietly hiss, "Wait a little bit longer Kiwi, we'll be out in the forest and you can run around all you want," Escaping the raven's hold, Odd fled into the crowd, "Well you needed different colors anyways! You can't always get away with wearing red and grey!"

With an annoyed groan, William quickly ran off after him, "Yes I can, come back here! _Odd!_ "

Yumi and Ulrich both blinked, "Well," She started, "That was weird." She then peered at the smaller brunette, "So, what did you want to tell me?"

Recoiling, the chocolate eyed samurai rubbed the back of his head, "Uh, I'll. . . tell you later." He lamely said, "Plus, we need to get going. Some students are already taking off. We need to be back by six anyways." With that, he sped-walked off after some of the groups of kids that left campus.

She sighed, "What is with him?"

* * *

After a few minutes of entering the forest, Yumi found herself sitting at a tree with Ulrich residing on the other side. He was messing around with his camera, obviously avoiding eye contact with her once she spoke up, "Messing around with your camera isn't saying what you needed to tell me."

"I-I know," He sighed, setting it on his lap. "I, don't really know how to put this." He took a deep breath, clapping his hands together as he finally made eye contact with the geisha, "Yumi, I. . ." He bit his lip, squeezing his eyes, "I like you Yumi, I really do."

"Like me?" A blush found its way to her cheeks as she stared down the brunette, "Like. . . like-like me?"

His cheeks a deep tomato red, Ulrich nodded, "Yes. . . I love you, Yumi. That's all I needed to say to you. But can I ask for you to tell me if you do?" He waved his hands, his already red cheeks darkening even further, "I'd respect it if you didn't respond right now. But, I wanted to tell you now. You needed to know."

Yumi found that she had no words to say, only left with a stutter, "Ulrich, I-I-"

 _ **RING! RING!**_

Ulrich's phone went off, interrupting her speechless sentence. The brunette let out a frustrated sigh, yanking his phone out of pocket to press the accept call button, "Jeremie?" Quickly, his lost his anger and hummed, "No problem. We'll go and get her," Then, with another pause he answered, "Actually, Odd isn't with me. Yumi is. I rather you call him yourself. See you in a minute." Ending the call, Ulrich pocketed his phone.

"XANA?"

With a frown, the brunette nodded, "We have to pick up Aelita. Odd will meet up with us whenever he can." He turned around, slinging the camera around his neck. Sighing, Yumi followed him away from their work area. She couldn't find a way to answer him, Jeremie's call was a lucky distraction. ' _I have to tell him how I feel_.' She thought, a frown on her face.

 _'But I just don't know how.'_

* * *

"This is the right place," Ulrich muttered, "But she isn't here."

Skimming around, Yumi stared around at the different trails looking for traces of pink. Nothing stood out in the thick fauna, "Maybe she went off to a different path?"

 ** _Bark!_** A familiar cream colored mutt ran over, tail wagging as he panted at Ulrich. Kiwi stared up at the boy, plopping down on the dirt trail.

"Kiwi!" Odd's voice echoed, the blonde quickly running over to the duo. He grinned at them, swooping down to pick up his dog, "Hey guys! So, the trail's here?"

"That's what Jeremie told me," Ulrich groaned, "Odd, get your mutt away from me. I swear every time you take him out with you, he always misses me enough to want to jump me."

The blonde chuckled, "Hmm, maybe one day I'll leave him with you and see if he does that to me. I would _love_ for my little diggity dog to pounce on me with love!" He laughed as Kiwi sniffed around a notebook, before pausing as the bull terrier trotted away to another part of the woods, "He has a scent! Let's follow him!" He chirped merrily.

"Should we really?" Yumi voiced.

Odd grinned, "He may be a bit dumb, but he does have a great nose!" Charging forward, the cat-boy went off to follow his pet. Ulrich went along as soon as he left and Yumi went after the duo after a moment of hesitation.

* * *

After a few minutes of walking off the trails, Odd's phone began to rang. He answered it and started to wave his hand in the air as he talked with Jeremie. Looks like it was obvious that the genius shouldn't have called the one person he didn't get along with. But then again, in the situation they were in he would call the last person he talked to.

Ulrich kept along close to the blonde, not to close to get hit by a hand though. Yumi quietly traveled behind the two, making sure to keep up so that she could see them but not close enough to be next to them. Once Odd reached a gate to a weird, old house, he started to quiet down, "Chill Jeremie, we're doing everything we can. She's probably alright right now, she might be a bit tired from all that walking you two must have done but still! She will be fine," He paused, rolling his eyes at whatever Jeremie said back to him, "Kiwi lead us to an old house in the woods. We're going to take a look inside. We'll call you back if we have any news." With that, he hung up.

Kiwi padded around Ulrich, carefully pawing his pant leg with a while, "Odd, make your dog cut it out."

Odd huffed, picking up the small bull terrier, "Calm down Kiwi. Ulrich's okay, see?" The cream colored pup let out a whine, squirming in the boy's hold, "Kiwi!" Chiding his mutt, the boy walked into the yard of the worn down house.

"Ulrich-" Yumi started, but the samurai took off after his best friend. With a huff, Yumi trailed along to the entrance of the home.

Odd allowed the door to open, setting Kiwi outside on the ground, "You stay here, okay? Be a good boy." He took off in, followed by his friends. As soon as Yumi stepped in, the door shut itself with a loud _thud_. All three of their gazes hit the door as Odd shucked his bag to the ground. He walked to the door, messing with the knob, "Door's locked."

"No signal." Ulrich added, grim expression as he pocketed his phone again.

Something _whooshed_ along the ground, gaining Yumi's attention. A drawer slid across the ground at a high speed, alerting Yumi to yell, "Look out!" As she pushed Ulrich out of the way. Odd dove with her to the other side, dodging the harmful blow the furniture could have caused.

Ulrich pointed towards the duo, "That way." The fighters of Lyoko took off, wary of their own surroundings. It looked like they had walked into a trap of some sort, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"XANA." She sighed. As if anything else could possess a house and make it attack them.

"Yeah," Odd agreed, "And that means Aelita must be here somewhere." Something _slid_ around in the room again, making all three teens shriek at the sight of sharp silverware heading their way. They ducked, the silverware embedding itself into the nearest wall.

Plates and cups chased them out of the kitchen. Odd immediately ducked before a lamp slid over his head, taking off down the stairs. It was like XANA _wanted_ to lead them somewhere. With a frown, Yumi and Ulrich followed Odd down the nearest stairs to keep away from the possessed objects.

"Looks like XANA's trying to lead us somewhere." Yumi finally spoke her mind. Right as she said that, the trio made it down the stairs to spot a familiar shade of pink lying on the ground.

"Aelita!" All three called.

Ulrich was the first one to run to her, a worried look on his face, "Don't worry Princess," He murmured, placing her arm around his neck. Yumi followed along, grabbing the other arm and doing the same, "We're here."

"Ulrich!" Aelita panted, "It's a trap! XANA, he's going to-"

The only door to the room immediately tried to seal itself shut. Odd flung himself in the doorway, one leg raised to try to fight off the steel door. He growled, staring at the door, "Get Aelita out! I'm not going to be able keep this thing open for long!" Quickly complying, the pinkette crawled underneath the cat-boy's body. When Yumi attempted to follow along, the blonde let out a choked cry. The Japanese girl threw herself away as Odd did the opposite direction. The door slammed shut, and both Aelita and Odd tugged on one side while Ulrich and Yumi did the same, "You'll be cooked alive if we don't get you out of there!"

"Odd! Head to the factory with Aelita, deactivate the tower. It's our only hope." Ulrich commanded.

On the other side, Odd sounded winded, "Come on!" Their voices died away as they left, leaving the duo trapped in the room together. Yumi continued to work at the door, shrieking as she heard a loud _boom_ from the other side. After listening for any more noises for a few more seconds, she sighed. Turning around, she saw Ulrich staring at a wall with a frown on his face.

"Yumi. . . I um. . ."

She shook her head, feeling heat rush to her cheeks, "Ulrich, I'm sorry. When you confessed to me and I didn't respond, I could tell it lead you to think about what could happen. I could say yes, I could say no. But I didn't give you an answer."

Finally gazing at her, Ulrich's face was colored a cherry red, "Yeah. Hearing your response would have been better." Then he paused, ". . .You're still not going to answer me, are you?" Caught off guard, the geisha snapped her mouth shut, "Yeah, I figured." Turning away from her, the conversation had apparently ended. The temperature continued to rise in the silent room, forcing Ulrich to shed his jacket and shirt. Minutes later, Yumi began to tug at her own sweater, "Go ahead, I won't look." He finally spoke up again, chocolate eyes meeting charcoal.

Yumi turned her back to him, taking off her sweater. She allowed it to slip on the floor as she leaned her back to Ulrich's, letting out a sigh of relief. The heat would only get worse until the tower was deactivated. She had faith in Odd, but they could only wait for so long before they pass out from heat exhaustion. Hearing the dial from far off, she swallowed whatever spit she had left. It was too hot, way too hot for them to survive for much longer. "Y-Yumi. . ." Ulrich whispered, voice raspy, "What is. . . what are we. . .?"

"We. . ." She shook her head, fists clenching. She couldn't wave it off any longer. He needed to know, she couldn't deny him that and make him wait, "I love you, Ulrich." In the corner of her eye, she saw him fall to the ground limply. She swallowed, praying that he heard her words. Her body tipped over just like his in what felt like a life time, but she managed to catch herself with one hand. She struggled to stay up, but her body protested and screamed at her until she finally had given up and let herself hit the heated ground.

What felt like a soft touch of cool air touched her, wrapping around her like a protective shield. She cracked her eyes open one last time to get a glimpse of what was trying to lower the temperature, and all she saw was a beautiful light of white before her vision disappeared completely with a comforting feeling that everything would be okay.

* * *

Finding herself sitting at the same tree from earlier, Yumi looked up into the cloudless sky. The sun was shining brightly, hidden behind the many branches of leaves. "Yumi?" Ulrich addressed, his voice quiet, ". . .did you mean what you said?"

She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, relief flooding through her. He did hear her, "Yes Ulrich," She locked gazes with familiar chocolate brown eyes, "I do."

A smile made its way onto his face, "Yumi," He took a deep breath, "Would you like to go out with me?"

With a grin on her face, she nodded, "Of course Ulrich, I'd love to go out with you."


	3. Franz Hopper

**Note:** Once again. I thank you for reading this story. I also thank you for showing your support. I hope you like this chapter.

 _ **Additional Notes:**_ Edited as of 10/12/18. Check chapter one's notes for what has been changed.

* * *

 **3\. Franz Hopper**

He had to call Yumi. It was the logical thing to do. After all, he could easily get Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita on the way to the factory. Staring at his screen, Jeremie grimaced at the sight, fingers running over his keyboard. Pulling out his phone, he dialed the geisha's number and once she picked up he spoke, "Yumi, it's Jeremie. We need you to come to the factory right now. The super scan has just picked up an attack from XANA. And this one looks like big trouble!"

" _Why_?" She grumbled tiredly.

"Because believe it or not, there are _five_ activated towers!"

* * *

As the elevator's doors opened, Jeremie could tell everyone was tired. Even him, but not as much. He was used to staying up most nights working hard on freeing Aelita from XANA's virus, so it wasn't too much of a hassle to wake up once he realized that there was an attack, "I got a bad feeling about this one." He commented.

Odd stared at him, dark circles underneath his eyes, "Relax Einstein," He murmured, voice soft with the casual nickname for the genius, "Everything will be okay like it always is. Don't worry so much that your hair turn grey like the actual Einstein." With a snort at his own joke, he crossed his arms in a relaxed pose.

A _zip_ sound echoed from above and Yumi quickly appeared as she slid down the rope, "I came here as quick as I could." Ulrich smiled at his girlfriend and quickly walked in stride with her to the elevator.

It wasn't much of a surprise they would get together, but the surprise came when they announced it right as they came back from the school field trip. Sissi was visibly upset about it that day, but as of recent she looked to be getting over the fact that they held hands, that they talked more than they did before, and that Ulrich would sometimes disappear off campus and appear with Yumi back at school the next day. Nobody called Ulrich out on his disappearances at night, sans Odd who joked about being careful with sneaking around her family.

All five entered the elevator, Aelita pressing the button to allow them to go down. After a few seconds they made their first stop to the supercomputer room. As soon as the doors slid open, Jeremie let out a surprised sound at the sight of someone at the computer typing away. He glanced to Odd, who was frowning at the man in the seat.

"Ah, there you are," Turning the chair, the man stared at them with through his big glasses, "I've been expecting you," Exchanging looks, each one of his friends donned a confused expression except Odd, who continued to frown at the intruder, "That XANA, locks the door but leaves the window open." Turning back around, the man began to type away at the supercomputer once more.

Jeremie rushed over, eyes wide as he watched the man continue to type away. Pictures of the activated towers disappeared at a moments notice, "W-What are you doing here?" He stuttered, surprised at the way he worked at the computer like he knew how to control it.

"I'm deactivating the towers," The man simply stated.

Jeremie stared skeptically at the man, "Without going to Lyoko?"

He chuckled, "Of course."

"But," Aelita walked over, followed by the rest of the gang, "Who are you?"

"What?" Now it was the man's turn to be confused, "Haven't you understood yet? I'm Franz Hopper." Both Jeremie and Aelita gasped, "I'm the one who created Lyoko. . . and XANA too. But I lost control of it. In the very beginning, it was a program that I designed to counter a military project based on a multi-agent system."

"Well," Aelita stared at him, "What about me?"

"I created you to be the guardian of Lyoko. But, I never thought I'd see you one day in flesh and blood," The pinkette looked down, a small smile on her face.

Ulrich raised an eyebrow, "But where have you been for these last few years?"

"Well, let's say I was kind of a prisoner who finally managed to escape."

Yumi frowned, "What now then?"

"We have to destroy XANA, once and for all." Jeremie continued to stare at the man. So. . . this was the man who did it all? The man who created Lyoko, created XANA and built the supercomputer?

"We'd love to," Jeremie replied, "But XANA's given Aelita a bug. If we switch the supercomputer off then Aelita switches off too!"

Franz gazed at the elf for a moment, before answering, "We'll find the anti-virus. You'll see."

"Sure. . ." Jeremie was skeptical once again. How could this guy be so sure of it so quick? "But how?"

"Well," Hopper sighed, resting his hand on Jeremie's shoulder. The touch felt nice, warm, "That, young man, is why I came here to help."

Odd looked at him, body sagging like he was about to fall asleep at any moment, "Hmph," He grunted, "You remind me of a crazed scientist, who's ready to strike the innocent townsfolk with his monster."

"Odd!" Jeremie turned to his friend, wagging his finger in a scolding manner, "Don't say that about him!"

The cat-boy raised his hands innocently, eyes wide and alert, "Okay okay, sorry." He muttered, looking at the ground.

"It's fine," The man accepted the sloppy apology, a frown clearly etched on his face, "Why don't you children get going? It's quite late, and all of you look like you would like some sleep."

"Right," Jeremie agreed, "Let's go guys. Looks like it was a false alarm after all."

* * *

"He's very fatherly," Aelita voiced, small smile on her face as she sat on Jeremie's bed, "Actually, in a way he is my father. He's the one who created me."

Nodding, Jeremie agreed, "That's true. I adore my own dad but he's sure no genius. But this Franz Hopper is a real live genius."

Standing up, Aelita beamed, "Yeah, that's it for me. I'm going to go to bed."

"Okay, good night."

"Good night Jeremie." Shutting the door behind her, Aelita left. Turning around in his chair, Jeremie faced his computer once again and went back to work. Even if they had Franz, it didn't guarantee that they'd get Aelita's anti-virus any sooner. As soon as they had the anti-virus, the sooner XANA would be out of their lives forever.

* * *

 _ **Ring! Ring!**_

Jeremie groaned, quickly picking up his phone. He adjusted to his surroundings, spotting that he fell asleep in front of his computer. Again. Answering the phone, he placed it near his ear, " _Jeremie? It's me."_

Half-awake, he replied, "Franz?"

 _"No, Michel! Your father! You know why I'm calling? Happy birthday big guy!_ "

The door clicked behind him. Turning in his chair, Jeremie stared at his friends who wore big smiles at him, "Happy birthday Einstein!" They laughed, clearly pleased with the day.

Shuffling away a bit from the crowd, he managed to hear his father say, _"By the way, your mother is worried about you. You should call us more often! Now have you thought about that school for gifted children?"_ His friends pushed lightly at him, hit him lightly on the shoulder, even Aelita kissed his temple lightly with a smile on her face. He couldn't find a way to reply to his father, _"Jeremie?"_

"Uh, yeah," Yumi pushed at his head a bit, "Okay dad, sure! Listen I have to go, uh, my friends just came in. Talk to you soon!" Pressing end as he moved it away from his ear, he finally granted his friends attention.

Odd had something behind his back, a small smile on his face. The dark circles on his eyes were more visible. Pushing away concern to the back of his mind— _Odd could handle himself and if not, Ulrich could get on him about sleep. They were roommates after all_ —Odd strolled over and laid the large, slim gift in his hands, "Here! A present from yours truly." He waved a hand to himself, a cheeky smile on his face.

"What are you waiting for?" Ulrich asked, "Go on, open it!"

Odd giggled as Jeremie ripped away the wrapping paper, picking up a picture frame that was carefully colored a light blue with green lines staggering in different directions. Inside resided a carefully drawn picture of the gang standing with each other. Odd held Kiwi who was drawn panting at Ulrich, the samurai rested his hand on Jeremie's shoulder, Aelita was smiling brightly at the scene and Yumi rested her own arm over Aelita's shoulder, smiling at the rest of them, "Wow! It's great!"

"Yeah!" Odd agreed, beaming, "I had to pick out the right colors to paint the frame. Just black wouldn't cut it. And I drew that scene from memory too!"

"So you can imagine how much effort it took!" Ulrich joked, followed by laughter from both Aelita and Yumi.

Odd pouted, sticking out his tongue at Ulrich, "Like how much effort it takes for you to pick the right outfit to go out with your girlfriend~?" Red immediately blossomed on Ulrich's cheeks. With a cackle at the embarrassed look on his best friends face, the blonde fled from Ulrich's side to stand near Jeremie.

"Thanks everyone," Jeremie smiled. "Hey! How about going over to the factory now? I can't wait to see Franz again!" All his friends nodded, agreeing. Jeremie couldn't ask for anything more than his friends on this special day of his.

* * *

"You use the scanners to virtualize human beings?" Franz sounded off-put by those words.

"Well, yes," Jeremie explained, "It's the only way we can find to deactivate towers on Lyoko."

"The virtualization process was not ready for that yet. It's a very dangerous procedure with serious side effects."

Yumi tilted her head, "Such as?"

"Cell degeneration."

A grim air began to fester in the room as Jeremie shared a look with both Aelita and Yumi, "Get going to the scanners." Jeremie uttered, fear pooling in his gut. Did he just hurt his friends with the dangers of the supercomputer?

Odd, Ulrich and Yumi filtered into the elevator and in a few moments, Franz had the scanners shut with all three fighters inside. Aelita and Jeremie stood by Franz's side as he typed away on the computer, "Odd looks okay. Ulrich too. But Yumi..." The computer let out a blaring alarm as it flashed in the head area.

"No!" Jeremie's eyes widen, his fears becoming a reality. This couldn't be. He couldn't have hurt them. He was so careful. Silently, he begged for this to be a mistake. To let this be an error of some sort. But the facts were there, and it was _real,_ "It can't be!"

* * *

"I can't believe it," Yumi sounded breathless, fingers hovering near her head. She looked absolutely frightened, "What a nightmare." Ulrich hovered close, worry on his face. When Jeremie wanted to say something, to do _something_ , all Ulrich regarded to him was an icy glare.

"Nice going Einstein."

"I-I couldn't have known," He replied weakly. He _couldn't_ have, "I'm sorry."

The icy look became downright hostile as Ulrich crossed his arms, "You're _sorry?_ Well that's not going to help cure Yumi, now is it?!"

"Ulrich," Odd chimed in for the first time since they left the factory, "Calm down. He couldn't have known, like he said. _None_ of us could." Odd left the seat of the bench next to the geisha in favor of standing near the other blonde.

Stumbling over his words, the genius started once again as he began to walk close to her, "Y-Yumi, I-"

"Leave me alone, Jeremie," Jeremie took a step back as she stood. Something ugly sparked in her eyes as she looked at him, like some sort of _monster,_ "I need to be by myself." Turning, she looked at Ulrich, "You coming, Ulrich?" Following along, the brunette left with his lover without another word shared.

Both him and Aelita watched as the two went. Odd stood there for a moment, before turning to Jeremie, "I don't like Franz Hopper." He declared bluntly.

"As much as you dislike him Odd," Aelita interjected, "What he told us has to be true. He created the supercomputer, he would know the consequences of the actions we've chosen."

The cat-boy looked to her for a moment, "Then why wouldn't he have left a note or something? To let us know the dangers of the scanners?"

Jeremie swallowed, wondering if that would dispel the harsh guilt of hurting Yumi. It didn't work, "Odd, he couldn't have done that. He was taken prisoner by XANA, remember?"

"How'd he get there then?" Odd insisted, "To Lyoko to get captured by XANA, I mean. Why would he endanger himself with cell degeneration?"

The genius sighed, "He must have had to confront XANA face to face to try to stop him. It must have not worked out and resulted in his capture."

The svelte blonde went quiet for a moment before mumbling, "Okay, whatever you say Einstein."

* * *

The day slowly flew by, each second left Jeremie trying to think of something to help Yumi. Nothing he thought of would work, but he still needed to believe that he could, "I'm sure there's a way to cure Yumi."

Ulrich regarded him once again with an icy stare before looking off. Odd stared out the window to gaze at the night sky, mindlessly picking at his food, "We don't even know what's _wrong_ with her." Ulrich hissed.

"I'll work it out," Jeremie avowed, "I promise I will."

"I think you've done enough damage as it is."

"What do you mean by that?" Jeremie glared, "That everything's been my fault right from the start?!"

"You're the brains of the operation," Ulrich snarled, " _Einstein."_

Odd finally looked away from the window, dropping his fork to rub at his eyes. "Ulrich, knock it off. We all chose to fight XANA, we chose the risks that it came with it for good and bad."

The brunette whipped his head to his best friend, clenching his teeth, "And why are you siding with him!? He could have done this to us too! Or do you just not care for Yumi? I bet you had it out for her from the start, now didn't ya?!" Odd removed his hands from his eyes, staring directly at the samurai, "Maybe you probably just put up with all of us for the thrill ride Lyoko gives you. You don't even care about any of us, do you?" After Odd said nothing, Ulrich chuckled bitterly, "Am I right?"

"I'm not hungry anymore," Odd finally answered, grabbing his bag from another seat. Sliding it over his shoulder, he grabbed his tray and walked away.

Jeremie picked up his own tray, unable to stand the samurai's attitude for another second. Ulrich spared him one last scathing glare before the genius could take it no longer as he walked away to another table. Aelita quickly said something to the brunette before following him to the nearest student-less table. As he ate away at his food in silence, he could feel Aelita stare at him before she too, took to eating her food.

* * *

The elevator's air was cold as the gang quietly walked in it the next morning. Jeremie watched as Yumi looked away from him and Odd kept his distance from Ulrich. The brunette still wore his cold emotionless face and Aelita shuffled around nervously. None of them could break the tension away from one another, not while their at each others necks.

The doors filed open and Franz spoke up, "I now know how to program the anti-virus which will free Aelita. All I need now is the data from Sector Five." Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi filed out to the main floor. Jeremie didn't acknowledge that Odd stayed behind, remembering the blonde said he disliked the older genius.

"Great! We'll go and get it then!" Aelita piped in. Ulrich and Yumi smiled at one another, but Odd continued to wear a frown.

"I thought the scanners were too dangerous to use," Jeremie recalled, stepping out of the elevator.

Franz continued to work at the computer, "If we want to get to Sector Five then we have no choice."

"Okay," Jeremie noted, "Then what am I supposed to do?"

"If I were you, I'd stay out of the way."

"It's not fair!" The Einstein finally snapped, "Everyone blames me for everything! After all, we all chose to do this together!"

"Perhaps," Hopper turned in his chair, "But you were the one who played the sorcerer's apprentice. You're the one who put your friends lives at risk. And you're the one who let XANA destroy my diary!"

"Fine!" Jeremie growled, "I get it!" Storming back to the elevator, Odd looked at him with the same frown he's been expressing at Hopper since the man had appeared in the supercomputer room. He grunted to the cat-boy, who pressed the up button on the elevator without one word spoken.

"Jeremie!" Aelita shouted, running over to the elevator. Before she could make it, the doors closed on her.

"Y'know," Odd finally spoke up as they made their way back up, "I don't blame you, Einstein. I blame Hopper for this whole mess."

Groaning, Jeremie buried his hands into his face, "But if Hopper never showed up, we would continue on like there's no problem with us. I hurt Yumi, Odd."

"No." The cat-boy denied, "The _scanners_ hurt Yumi. Hopper's creation hurt her."

"Like he said, I acted like I knew how to use the supercomputer and she got hurt."

Odd faced him, a scowl on his face, "Listen Jeremie, you know how much we don't like each other. We bicker and fight about the silliest things, but there's one thing I can tell that Ulrich and Yumi right now can't see, _it's not your fault_. I don't blame you for this at all. We all chose this. If Ulrich wants to throw a fit over the whole situation when we knew that some consequences would come to haunt us, then that's fine. I care about my friends Jeremie, I really do." The elevator doors slid open and Odd took a deep breath, "Last night I packed up my stuff and left Ulrich's dorm."

"You what?!"

The svelte blonde sighed, "I didn't take _all_ my stuff out of there. But what he said hurt me and I didn't want to be around him right after he said that. So I packed up my stuff and left. I let him keep Kiwi since my little diggity dog loves to curl up near his back. I also left him behind to make Ulrich think I was just going to be late returning to the dorms that night. I don't know if he noticed I never came back."

Jeremie stared at his friend, concern finally taking hold over the fear and anger that consumed him the night before, "Where'd you sleep?"

"With William," Odd rubbed his shoulder, a yawn escaping his lips, "He welcomed me with open arms after I told him Ulrich and I fought. I think I might crash with him for a week or so, just until I can find a way to forgive Ulrich. As long as I don't tell Delmas about me switching rooms, keep away from Jim's prying eyes when he sometimes checks the halls at night and tender to Kiwi during the day instead of night, then I'll be fine."

"Won't you be nervous about Ulrich figuring it out?"

Odd's gaze softened, "Of course I am. But he needs to learn that it's not okay to accuse others of something that isn't true. It may be true that I love Lyoko because of its thrill ride, but I would _never_ abandon you guys. I don't hate you guys, you're my friends. I paid attention to your favorite colors, Jer. I made sure to paint the picture frame those colors because I wanted it to be perfect for my friend." Rubbing his arms, Odd looked at Jeremie one more time, "I think I'm going to use a Saturday afternoon well and take a nap in William's dorm. He's out with his friends in town today."

"Right," Jeremie nodded, "I guess I'll see you later?"

Odd smiled, "Yeah, later Einstein."

* * *

Back in his room, Jeremie picked up the crafted frame and picture Odd gave him for his birthday. Staring at it, he tried to quell the misery that grew in his chest. As much as Odd told him it wasn't his fault, Jeremie couldn't believe him. It was his fault Yumi was hurt and that's that. He swallowed, remembering something that would tear him away from the guilt, from the disaster he caused.

He placed the frame back on the table, swiveling his chair to his computer. He picked up his phone and quickly dialed a familiar number, _"Hello_?"

"Dad, it's me."

 _"Jeremie?"_ Michel sounded surprised.

"You know that school for gifted children that you were talking about?"

 _"Yes."_

"I want to go, can you come get me?"

" _When?"_

"As soon as possible."

 _"Right_ _,"_ Michel answered, _"I'll be there tomorrow."_

"Oh, right," Nodding to himself, Jeremie continued on, "Alright then." He stared at his phone, pressing the end button. As soon as he hit the button, emotions swallowed him like a wave. He almost was tempted to press the call button and dial his father again and simply change his mind. But he couldn't. He needed to do this or else he'd be stuck in grief and regret forever. He couldn't stay at this school and live like this.

Then suddenly, it hit him. _'And you're the one who let XANA destroy my diary!'_

"Franz Hopper's diary..." Jeremie muttered, disbelief growing on his face, "But how could he have known that it was destroyed?" Walking away from his computer, he strolled over to his closet door and opened it. Picking up the familiar suitcase, he set it on the ground.

 _'Maybe we'll find out more about the mysterious owner of the Hermitage.'_

 _'Everything's encrypted, I have to decode it.'_

Opening the suitcase, the familiar words echoed once again, _'And you're the one who let XANA destroy my diary!'_ He picked out the two first disks, staring at the damage the possessed him had caused weeks ago.

"How could Franz Hopper know that?" He asked himself quietly.

 _'XANA took control of you.'_

 _'He destroyed all of Franz Hopper's disks. Apparently he had a problem with his notes.'_

Jeremie looked the disks, gasping to himself. _'And you're the one who let XANA destroy my diary!'_

"XANA!"

* * *

He fled to the factory. He had no other choice. He couldn't wander around the halls to locate William's dorm to find Odd and bring him with. Hopefully the blonde would get his text about Hopper being XANA, but the cat-boy told him he was going to take a nap so his backup might not even be there. But Odd was right about not liking Franz Hopper one bit.

XANA probably made up the cell degeneration thing too. Probably to tear his friends away from him and get rid of him and his friends himself. And it worked too, it tore them into two sides and separated them all. The virus could be luring Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi into a trap right at that very moment.

Jeremie traveled as fast as he could and when he finally made it to the elevator, he heard Odd shout, "WAIT!" The blonde slid down the rope and ran into the elevator. Pressing the button, the Einstein stared at the panting blonde.

"I got your text, but I got held up a little with something." Smiling impishly for the first time in what felt like days, Odd stood up straight, "Now let's defeat XANA-Hopper!"

"Shush!" Jeremie put a finger to his mouth, "Sneak attack time."

Odd nodded, "Got it, Jer." The elevator doors slid open to the scanner room, right where Aelita was going to enter a scanner. Jeremie ran up to her, shushing her as well once her eyes widened with surprise.

"Take my laptop and place a fake you into Lyoko instead, the Hopper above is actually XANA." He whispered.

She nodded, "Right."

"Odd," He pointed at the ladder, "If anything goes wrong when I confront Franz, I want you to be there ready to do whatever you can."

Odd ran out of the scanners, placing his hands on the metal ladder, "Understood, Einstein. Good luck up there."

Jeremie walked back into the elevator, pressing the up button, "Same to both of you."

The doors slid shut and in a few seconds, he stared at the supercomputer room where XANA-Hopper typed away at the keyboard and offered a fake sweet voice to the clone Aelita, "Everything's under control." He murmured. Jeremie strutted forward, catching the attention of the specter, "Jeremie, what are you doing here?"

"I came to see how you were managing. . . XANA!" The man's glasses flashed in the familiar logo the genius has come to hate in a short period of time. He scowled at the monster that tricked him and all his friends, the being that created a mess of their friendship in such a short time. He stepped forward, raising his fists in a threatening manner.

XANA-Hopper leaned out of his chair, extending a hand that quickly emitted purple electricity. Shrieking, Jeremie flew back from the blast into the wall. At that moment, Odd crept from the ladders and launched himself at the crazed clone. It growled, form distorting as Odd flew through him and crashed into the metal wall. He laid upside down, body still. "Hmph, that annoying brat didn't go with his friends. Stayed by your side like a loyal pet, Jeremie."

Amber eyes flew open, clouded with rage, "I may be a cat on Lyoko, but I'm no one's _pet."_ He spat the last word like it was toxic, bringing himself to a stand slowly.

"What interests me is that you saw through me at the beginning." XANA-Hopper commented idly.

Jeremie's eyes flew to Odd, wide with shock, "You _knew_?"

Odd growled, "I knew that he'd bring nothing but trouble, but I didn't know that was XANA. It just seemed far too convenient that he'd appear while you were stumped on research. So I didn't trust him."

XANA-Hopper stood from his chair, "But dear cat-boy, you act more on instinct than anything. That must be why the scanners created you that way. But what I find interesting is from the first trip to Lyoko to the second, you gained more data than the rest of your pathetic friends. It brings me to wonder. . . had Hopper created something to counter me but failed to implant it in himself? Hmm?" Odd shrieked as purple electricity attacked him, bringing him to whither on the floor in pain, "Every plan I try you always look out for them, you always stay loyal to a side that isn't chaos. . . you act as if you knew how to act before I attacked." His face turned absolutely vicious, "Could the power you had dubbed "Future Flash" mean more outside of Lyoko than within?"

"Odd! Stop it, you're killing him!" Jeremie yelled, "You should know as much as we do that the scanners don't bring powers outside of Lyoko, XANA!"

With clenched teeth, Odd glared at the clone, "Believe what you want, _XANA_." His gaze was cold to the monster, "But I don't even know what you're talking about. The only thing I trust is my heart, and my heart told me trust my instincts. And my instincts say that _you won't get Aelita's memories today_."

XANA-Franz whipped his head at the supercomputer with those words, letting out a frustrated scream as the computer flashed an error sign. Jeremie grinned as the clone's voice finally deepened as it hissed, _**"What's the meaning of this?!"**_

"A decoy." Jeremie practically sang, finally finding the strength to pull himself up and walk to the supercomputer. The lightning finally stopped shocking Odd, allowing the cat-boy to lay flat on the ground and try to regain his breath.

Whipping his head to the genius, the specter cried, _**"NO!"**_

Jeremie couldn't help it, he laughed. He was joyful because it was beginning to turn his way, even with the strange accusations XANA threw at Odd. Slowly but surely, everything would be okay like it always became. XANA-Hopper growled, his body melting away to the weird black smoke it always became. It fled from the chair into the roof slowly and once it was finally gone from the chair, Jeremie quickly took his seat and went to work undoing what XANA-Franz did as he slid the headset onto his ear where it rightfully should have been a long time ago.

 _"I often wondered how this would all end."_ Yumi's voice filtered into his ear, _"And now I know. This is it."_ Furiously typing away, Jeremie first checked the scanners. If he knew the virus and his tricks, it would be to deactivate the scanners and allow them to disappear forever when the duo ran out of life points. He then spotted the error within the coding and without any delay, he undid it. Pressing enter, he let out a sigh of relief. One problem solved. Good thing too, for the cry of, _"NO! ULRICH!"_ Was a clear sign of his devirtualization, " _No. . . it can't be. . ."_

"Come on!" He couldn't help but bubbly say into the mic, "Don't be so pessimistic Yumi!"

 _"Jeremie?"_ Relief practically dripped from her voice.

"Yes!" He chirped, "I'm back! Come on, let's start over!" Continuing to type away, he noticed what else the specter had pulled. He took away Ulrich and Yumi's weapons, which was probably why the geisha sounded so panicked. They had no way to fight back. Re-summoning her fans, Jeremie leaned back into his chair with a cheeky grin. He was glad to be back. He was glad that everything was going to be okay, no matter what.

Hearing her battle cry, he watched the screen as Creepers disappeared off the map. Once they were all cleared out, she spoke up again, _"What about Ulrich?"_

"All's well. I managed to reprogram the materialization just in time. He's home," Moving the mic away, he called to the pinkette below, "Ready Aelita?"

"Yes Jeremie!"

His fingers rushing over the keyboard in the patterns he's well familiar too, he informed, "All we have to do now is deactivate the tower! I'm sending you Aelita!" Finally, footsteps began to fall behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he spotted Odd walking over on shaky legs to the chair.

"Send me too, Jer." Odd insisted, "Yumi might not have enough life points to take on whatever's left of XANA's monsters. It's probably mad that you tricked it."

Frowning, Jeremie shook his head, "No, Odd. You look like you're about to faint. Take it easy for now." Turning away, he muttered into the mic, "Virtualization!" He had sent Aelita to the Glacier Region, and if she was quick enough the tower would be gone soon. Once she neared the very end of the sector he added, "Aelita! I'm entering the code, Scipio!"

Odd suddenly jerked away from the seat with a panicked shout, "Jeremie, run!"

"What-?" A feeling of pure, frosty ice consumed him. First it spread around the insides of his ears, then it sank through his nose and mouth and stopped right at his throat. Falling out of the chair, he began to wheeze for air that just wouldn't come to him. Odd fell to his side, lifting his head up as if it would let him breathe better. Panicked amber met crystal blue and for the first time, Jeremie felt as if Odd was truly scared. He hadn't ever seen the fear in the cat-boy's eyes until now. Silently, as his vision began to fade away and as Ulrich landed near him with his own panicked look, Jeremie asked himself a question. _'Why had Odd never been scared about XANA's attacks before?'_

Recalling the time they've dealt with XANA and his ever-growing attacks, Odd was _never_ worried. Sure, he sounded concerned here or there. But when something came up he would simply say, ' _Everything will be okay.'_ Like he _knew_. Jeremie found he was as confused as the virus, did Odd know more than their friends did about the future? "Jeremie!" Ulrich's voice cut into his thoughts, his body shaking as he stared at the teen, "I'm sorry about everything, I swear I am!"

Odd, on the other side of the samurai, stared at Jeremie and kept him leveled. The genius continued to try to swallow for the taste of fresh air, but it never came. His struggles slowly died and if anything, he swore he began to see darkness clouding his vision, "Hang in there." Odd whispered, fingers squeezing the back of the genius' sweater, _"Please."_

The darkness began to swallow his vision whole, allowing him only to see the endless darkness of the beams and wires from above. He took one last wheezing breath, before air suddenly flew in and he choked on it. Ulrich smacked his back as Odd threw him into a sitting position. The samurai continued to stare into the beams much like he did a moment ago, but Odd stared at him with relief in his eyes, "You okay Einstein?"

Jeremie shuttered, which was enough of a sign for Ulrich to stop pounding at his back. Instead, the brunette gave a smile, "Don't worry buddy, everything's okay now." The Einstein reached his hands up, squeezing them in the air for a few seconds. Odd pulled him up to stand, allowing the genius some room to catch his breath. Jeremie stumbled forward, plopping down in the chair as he snagged his headset and shoved it back in, "A-Alright ladies... I'm going to bring you two back in." Looking to Odd, who looked shaken by the whole situation and to Ulrich, who was running his fingers through his hair with frown. "Odd, get to the scanners."

"Hmm?" The svelte blonde tilted his head, eyes foggy, "Why?"

He sighed, "As much as I want to ignore what XANA said, I can't. Some things don't add up Odd, and if he noticed something I didn't that means he must have looked at your digital avatar and coding when he scanned you, Ulrich, and Yumi yesterday. He might have messed with yours when you made him upset and I don't want anything like that to happen to you."

The cat-boy stumbled to the elevator, clearly out of it. When Ulrich reached out to help his best friend, Odd whipped his head to stare at the brunette, _"Don't."_ Chocolate brown eyes widened with surprise and Ulrich took a step back. Odd walked into the elevator, pressing the down button. He stared blankly at the duo, looking ready to pass out any second until the door shut, cutting his gaze to them completely off.

Jeremie typed away at the supercomputer, allowing a comfortable silence to sooth him. Yumi and Aelita were out of Sector Five and back in the real world after a few minutes. He wiped his glasses with his sleeve, he would sort through Yumi's re-materialization to see if any of XANA-Hopper's words rang true. But he would do that when he had a clearer conscious. Which would be after he got some sleep.

"I'm ready, Einstein." Odd's voice echoed from below. Jeremie allowed the scanner to slide shut around the cat-boy, who stood in the middle scanner. After a few minutes, the scanner slid open.

Running his fingers through his hair, Jeremie muttered to himself, "I'll look at this all tomorrow. I want to look at it and make sure I don't miss anything," Raising his voice, he announced, "We should head back for now, I think we all need some rest after all."

* * *

 _ **Knock! K-Knock Knock!**_

Jeremie grunted, startling himself out of his sleep. He stretched out, grabbing his glasses as he threw himself over his bed. Putting them on, he walked over to his door and opened it. To his surprise, Ulrich stood there looking ready to fall back asleep, "Ulrich? What are you doing here?"

"Is Odd with you?" He asked quietly.

That certainly answered the Einstein's question. Odd hadn't told Ulrich he was staying somewhere else until he forgave him for what he said. But he told Jeremie. Did Ulrich know where William stayed? "He's not in his room?" He avoided answering the question. If Odd hadn't told Ulrich, then it wasn't his place to say.

"No," Ulrich groaned, "I'm such an idiot. He's avoiding me because of what I said to him at dinner the other night, right?"

This, Jeremie felt like regarding an answer with, "Yes."

Scrubbing his eyes, the samurai looked downward to the ground, "I messed up, Jeremie. I really did with all of you. Yumi and I were tricked, but I took it too far on all of you. I apologized to Aelita earlier in the scanner room before she went into Lyoko and I didn't get to you because of Odd. I wanted to apologize to him first because he's my best friend, he deserved to know that what I said was stupid and that it's my fault for hurting him. Just like you need to know that too, I'm sorry about saying those things Jeremie."

"We all make mistakes," He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "But we deserve a second chance for our mess-ups. I forgive you Ulrich."

Finally, a smile found its way onto Ulrich's face, "Thanks Jer," Then as quickly as it appeared it was replaced with a frown, "But now I have to say sorry to Odd. . . and with his habits as of lately I don't know how he'll react."

"Habits?"

"Yeah," The samurai nodded, "He hasn't been getting much sleep lately because he's been writing a lot in his own journal. I spot him writing in it every night but in the morning, it vanishes like it was never even with him," Ulrich then started to count off on his fingers, "Then there's the nightmares he never tells me about on Tuesday, his loud snoring on Wednesday, Thursday he grinds his teeth, then the rest of the week he keeps a weird sleep schedule, then it repeats on Tuesday all over again."

Jeremie frowned, "That is pretty strange. Has he gone to Nurse Yolanda about it yet?"

"Not that I know of," Ulrich grimaced, "I'll talk with him once we're on better terms I guess. Don't bring it up to him though, I think he won't like me telling you about this."

"I promise I won't tell him." Jeremie vowed.

Nodding, Ulrich yawned loudly, "I'm going to head back to my room. I'll catch Odd at breakfast and hopefully sort this out."

"Alright, good night Ulrich."

"Good night Jeremie."

* * *

"Of course I'm not angry with you," He clarified with Yumi. The next day had arrived pretty quick and the gang was back at discussing the events of yesterday in Jeremie's dorm, "Even more I checked out your bio-schematic during your re-materialization phase. There's no sign of alteration whatsoever!" He was proud to say those words. Yumi could rest easy now that she knew too.

"Oh what a relief!" Yumi admitted, a smile on her face.

Then, he faced Odd, "And whatever that specter was accusing you of I can firmly confirm it is false. The supercomputer's data shows that there _was_ a slight data jump the second time you made the plunge into Lyoko but the rest of the jumps you made to this day have not been changed at all. But the second time of data happened to all three of you when you made your second jumps in equal amounts. It was the supercomputer getting used to you guys becoming virtualized, or at least that's what I can conclude from the data. It even happened to Aelita too when she started going to Lyoko from our world."

"Meaning?" Ulrich tilted his head.

"Odd's okay too." Jeremie simplified, rubbing the back of his head, "Sorry about the long explanation."

Relief shined in amber eyes, "That's good. You're fine."

Yumi grumbled, "He really had me scared there, that _Franz Hopper."_

"That false Franz Hopper," Jeremie chimed in, "The real one is still somewhere on Lyoko."

 ** _Knock! Knock! Knock!_**

Jeremie rubbed the back of his head, humming in confusion. Each one of them looked at the door for a second before the door opened. . . and there his father was. Dressed in a tan coat with a dark blue jacket, red pants and brown shoes. "Dad!" He shouted, recalling the talk they had yesterday.

"Are you ready son? Let's go." Michel asked.

"Wait!" Jeremie walked over to him briskly, "Things have changed, let me explain!" He shoved him out of the door, following along. "I've thought it over, and I don't want to go anymore."

Michel raised an eyebrow, "You sure you thought it over?"

"Yes." The genius nodded, "I'm really sorry I made you come all the way out here for nothing."

His father walked over, resting his hand on his shoulder with a fond smile, "Don't you worry about it. And don't forget to give us a call from time to time!"

Jeremie smiled, "I promise." His dad hummed before taking off down the hallway. The blonde couldn't help the grin on his face, he loved his dad. He walked back into his room, spotting Odd with an eyebrow raised.

"What was that about?"

"It was nothing," Jeremie easily dismissed.

Aelita beamed at the glasses-wearing blonde, "Your father seems like a nice guy!"

"Yeah, I love him! He's great!"

Ulrich grinned, "Like father, like son."

Jeremie flashed a smile to the brunette, taking off to his desk. Picking up the frame and photo Odd made him, he turned it to let the others view it, "I think it looks better facing this way, don't you?" His friends began to laugh and he couldn't help it, he laughed too.


	4. Aelita

**Notes:** Thank you for continuing to read this so far. This means so much to me. I hope you enjoy.

 _ **Additional Notes:**_ Edited as of 10/12/18. Check back to chapter one's notes to see what has changed.

* * *

 **4\. Aelita**

 _They were running. In a full on sprint, she followed her father through the sewers. They had to get somewhere, like her father said. But where?_

 _Without uttering a word, his father stopped his sprint and gripped at a metal ladder. Turning his face, Aelita understood what he meant. She quietly followed him up the stairs, and they fled inside the factory from the bridge they came to be on through the manhole. Going down a floor and entering a elevator, she finally spoke up once they entered a weird room with a giant computer and a weird circular thing next to the computer. The room was colored an eerie green and the wires, they gave her the chills, "Where are we?" She finally asked her father._

 _"In my laboratory." Hopper replied, typing at the keyboard for a second. After that, he got off of it and grabbed her hand, dragging her down another floor, "Come on."_

 _"Where?"_

 _"To a world where you and I will be safe, forever."_

 _With a swallow, she entered a yellow cylinder thing on the right side. Her father looked conflicted at the other two, only for a moment before choosing the left one. He ran his hands along it for a second, muttering something she couldn't understand under his own breath. He took back his arm, staring directly at her, "See you in a minute, honey."_

 _"Alright, Daddy." The doors of the weird cylinder slid shut with her words. Winds blew up from below and a weird feeling consumed her. It was like she was empty as her vision turned black. After a moment, she found herself staring at a place that reminded her of the forest around her home. But the trees were much taller and the leaves that had didn't appear on them. She landed on the ground, stumbling for a second. She couldn't feel the hardness of the landing, nor smell the earthy soil. After a moment, she gently tried to claw at the ground to pull out the dirt... it didn't work._

 _Then she finally took in her outfit. It wasn't the one she came in, but she dressed in pink and white instead. She touched her hair, wondering if it was still the same shade of pink as her mother had the last time she saw her. Then her fingers traveled to her ears, which she found pointed instead of the usual curve. Was she an elf?_

 _Another thought hit her, where was her father? "Daddy?" She called, "Daddy, where are you?"_

 _"Here I am, Aelita." Beautiful white orbs appeared around her, giving off a soft tune that reminded her of the piano he played._

 _"Daddy!" Why wasn't he like her? Like a elf-human?_

 _The different colors of light seemed to dance as her father's voice echoed out of them, "I can't materialize myself into human form yet as you can Aelita, I still have more work to do on Lyoko. This world needs to develop more." Weird noises popped up behind her and when she looked, weird small creatures skittered close to them._

 _"Daddy, there are some strange looking creatures over there."_

 _Red glowed in front of each of them as her father's shout warned her, "Run Aelita! RUN!"_

 _She spun herself around, running away as fast as she could, "Daddy!" She cried as she ran, fearful of the strange monsters that chased after her. They shot off their red lasers and finally, one hit her shoulder. She shrieked as she fled into the big candle-looking thing. She slid into the weird white thing, straining her body against the wall to make sure it didn't push her back. Soft noises echoed around her as she tumbled into the middle of a platform._

"Aelita!" She gasped, pencil dropping out of her hand, "You know young lady. Most of us go to sleep _at night_." Children erupted with laughter as the teacher stared her down with a exasperated smile.

She ducked her head, "Ah, I'm sorry Mr. Fumet."

"Scandinavian mythology says that a natural disaster brings to the end of the Norse Gods world, scorching the Earth before a new peaceful world can arise from the ashes. It was called Ragnarök."

Odd perked up lazily from his seat behind the two Einsteins, "The two people that help repopulate the world after Ragnarök are Líf and Lífþrasir, right?"

Mr. Fumet smiled, "Ah, yes Odd... but we haven't gotten there yet," He waggled his finger, "Right now we'll be focusing on the major Norse Gods that had perished during the events of Ragnarök."

* * *

"How'd you know about those people, Odd?" Jeremie asked. The gang sat at one of the benches around campus, near the vending machines. Aelita leaned on the other side of the bench, rubbing her head. The memories kept playing on repeat. . .

Odd shrugged, "I like to study up on mythology sometimes. That's why I'm passing his class right now with a B because this semester he's focusing on the mythology of the Norse. Mr. Fumet just _adores_ me. . . when I actually talk about the subject at hand, of course."

Yumi rose an eyebrow, "So how was History class?"

"Who cares," Her boyfriend shrugged, a silly smile on his face, "It's history now."

Sissi's voice rose from the many kids around campus, "Well Mrs. Einstein better get a good nights sleep! A super brain like yours needs a little shut eye and most of us, as you know, go to sleep at night!"

Odd grinned from his spot on the bench, "Come on Sissi, is that taunting or actual advice? Right now you're just _begging_ me to make a comeback at you," When she didn't respond, he laughed, "You wouldn't have that problem of going to sleep at night, 'cause your brains are in your feet!"

She grunted, leaving over to Herve, "Isn't Odd a riot when he's acting like he's the best?" Her voice was downright mocking him, "Look who's got the nerve to mock my feet, especially after what Heidi told me about yours!" Pinching their noses as they laughed, Herve and Nicholas walked away with Sissi.

Frowning, Odd peered at his feet, "Do they still really stink after I got some stuff from Yolanda?"

Ulrich snorted, "I have to open a window when you put that stuff on. It smells worse than your actual foot stench."

"Hmph," Odd crossed his arms, "I'm never going to get rid of that part of my reputation." He then shrugged, "No big deal. All the woman still like me."

Yumi looked at her friend, "Are you so sure? The last time I seen you with someone was about a month ago, and that was with Emily."

"Well, I haven't been dating much since Sam," A blush found its way onto Odd's face, "But I only do it to help to make the girl better these days. I just have the right mindset, that's all," Standing up, he stretched, "Well, I'm off to bug William and show him the newest character I created on my laptop, see you guys later!" He ran off, a little skip in his step.

Ulrich leaned back on the bench, frown on his face, "I swear, whenever he thinks he has a chance to hang out with William he goes and leaves us behind. . ."

Sighing, Yumi gave him a look, "Ulrich, don't be like that. You guys already made up. . ."

Jeremie looked at the brooding brunette, before adding, "Well it's lunch time. Why don't we get something to eat?"

With a nod, the gang left the bench to head to the lunch room. Aelita followed along quietly, mind stained with the memories of her past.

* * *

 _The thing she entered inside, it had beautiful panels of white numbers flashing up and down. "Aelita." Her father's voice boomed from somewhere, but where?_

 _"Daddy." She responded._

 _Her father's beautiful white lights fell downward towards her, surrounding her with their wonderful tune, "Aelita I have to make contact with XANA and persuade him that we can live in peace with him."_

 _"Who's XANA?"_

 _"A multi-agent computer program I created. It has achieved self-awareness in autonomy and is trying to eliminate us now."  
_

 _She tilted her head, "But why Daddy?" Instead of replying, the orbs that were her father disappeared like they hadn't been there before, "Daddy?"_

 _This time her father's voice echoed around, like he was there in front of her, "Whatever you do, don't leave this tower."_

 _"Daddy?! Daddy! DADDY!"_

"Aelita?" Jeremie snapped her out of it, shaking her shoulder gently, "Hey, what's the matter? Is anything wrong?" Concern flashed on the blonde's face. She looked down, she hated to make him concerned over her.

"No I-" She sighed, "I was daydreaming I guess."

"Hey guys!" Odd beamed as he sat down next to Yumi. Ulrich took one look at him before gazing towards the window. The purple-loving blonde dug his fork into his spaghetti, slurping it down like he was starved.

Yumi shook her head, wrinkling her nose in disgust, "Did you not eat this morning?"

"As a matter of fact, I didn't." He gasped in mock horror, dropping his folk to place his hand over his stomach, "That's why it sounded like a dying animal!"

Ulrich immediately lost his brooding mood, "But Odd, you did eat. I was there with you."

Jeremie also looked puzzled, "Yes, so was I."

Placing a hand underneath his chin, Odd looked thoughtful. "Oh! Then I must have forgot!" Laughing it off like it was nothing, Odd went back to eating.

The samurai looked past his girlfriend to glare at his best friend, "I swear, sometimes your memory is spotty." Odd continued to gobble down his meal, completely disinterested with the conversation. Most likely he didn't care that he couldn't remember, the blonde with a purple splotch in his hair never really seemed to mind his mental health until Ulrich would get on him about it. Or at least, that's what Aelita noticed when Odd threw out he couldn't remember simple things of the day and the brunette would make him swear to go to the infirmary if a big chunk of memory seemed to disappear.

Yumi chuckled awkwardly, picking up her tray, "Well I'll leave you guys to dispute to Odd that not remembering little things of the day isn't okay," She looked exasperated, "It's a battle that has no one as a winner," She then leaned down to peck Ulrich on the cheek and walked away, "I'll see you guys later after my math test!"

Blushing heavily, the chocolate eyed boy lightly glared at his best friend, "Remember our deal? You promised."

"I never break a promise," Odd managed to say through the chewing of his food, "You know that," He took a break to steal Yumi's seat, sitting next to the brunette. He then continued to devour his food without a care in the world, "But not recalling that I ate isn't _big_ though. So I win this time."

Aelita twiddled her thumbs, wondering to even ask the question. She couldn't help but blurt it out after a moment, halting Ulrich from starting an argument with his best friend, "Do you think my father's alive?" She asked quietly. Jeremie let out a surprised noise, like he was confused why she even asked that, "My father, Franz Hopper. Do you think it's possible to re-materialize him?"

Crystal blue met apple green, "No," He bit his lip, "What I mean is... well, there's no way to."

"But he managed to survive when XANA captured him the first time." She tried to reason, "Why not a second time?"

"Your father sacrificed himself for you Aelita," A sad smile made its way on the Einstein's lips as he turned to face her, "And he had to have used whatever little strength he had left in him to bring you back to life."

"I know, but I thought there might be hope." She frowned, "That maybe you could find a way."

She had to prove him wrong, she couldn't give up her father now. She didn't want to be alone with her memories anymore, she wanted someone that could understand them with her. A cold fear gripped at her body as Jeremie pressed on,"Impossible. I checked every inch of Lyoko and there isn't the slightest sign of him." He took a breath, "Aelita, I've been working hard in a way of getting into the world wide web so that we can fight XANA," He then grabbed her hand gently, like she was a fragile piece of glass, "And you should think the way I think. I mean, think about the future."

Aelita yanked her hand back, rage replacing the utter fear that bubbled inside her before, "And just forget my past, huh!? You think it's easy?! You didn't spend ten years of your life as some sort of computer software!" She stood up, storming off away from the table, "I wish I never recovered my memory!"

 _It had felt like a while since she spoke with her father. "Daddy!" She called, running to what looked to be the only exit of the tower she was in, "Daddy! I'm coming Daddy!" Her body slipped through the tower, but as always she added a bit of pressure to make sure her body fully went through._ _Weird creatures flew through the air, shooting down the white lights that were her father. Lasers slammed into him and fear grew inside her. Why were these flying bugs attacking her father? "Daddy!" She cried, terrified for his well-being._

 _"No, Aelita! Get back to safety in the tower!" The monster's wings flapped, leaving echoes as they continued to shoot at her dad. She whimpered, staring at the scene in front of her. She had to turn away for her father's sake, she had to! "You have the keys to Lyoko, Aelita. XANA must never get his hands on them! Do you understand?" They continued to shoot down her father, completely ignoring her, "It's over, Aelita. XANA is too powerful, he's become a threat to all mankind. I got to shut down the supercomputer!" She fled into the tower, finally able to look away._

 _She ran to the middle of the platform before she fell down, "But does that mean we'll die?" She questioned, voice quiet. She didn't want to die. . . she didn't. She didn't want her father gone either. She wanted her father to be okay, she wanted everything to be okay. Why couldn't that work out?_

 _"No!" Her dad finally said, voice firm, "But you mustn't forget me, ever! Never forget, Aelita!"_

"Daddy. . ." She sobbed, curling up into a ball. She failed the one thing that he asked for, she couldn't remember him once the supercomputer turned on. He gave his strength to her to allow her to remember, and that _hurt_.

"I knew I'd find you here." Odd's voice was soft, calming to the storm of emotions that swam in her head. Aelita pulled her head away from her knees, feeling the warm liquid of tears streaming down her cheeks as she turned away from him and scrubbed at her eyes, "You know, our good buddy Einstein may be a computer wiz, but when it comes to emotions he's a-"

"A total lame-o!" Aelita spat.

"But he really likes you." Odd murmured, setting his foot against a broken dresser. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before plopping down on the ground of Aelita's old room, "You know that."

"And I really like him too," Aelita confessed, "But I wish he would just _understand_ that my father is all that I have left of my past life."

Odd looked at her, "Even if he did Aelita, he can't spend all his time just on locating your father. He's trying to look out for all of us. He doesn't want anything bad to happen now that XANA is out of the supercomputer and it wants to destroy the Core of Lyoko to get rid of us."

She crossed her arms, "It sounds like you're on his side."

"I'm on neither." Odd denied, "Because I want you to be happy. And I want Jeremie to be happy. It sounds silly but out of all things with Lyoko and XANA, I just want everyone around me to be happy. Remember Ulrich and I got into a big fight because of XANA making a clone of your father to get your memory?"

"Yeah," She easily recalled their verbal fight, then she easily recalled the _other_ fight, "Ulrich had to physically fight you to get you to talk with him. Then you both had detention for a week with Jim. I heard you two sat on opposite ends of the room and glared at each other during most of the detention time."

Odd chuckled bitterly, "I know he was acting like a big jerk because of XANA-Hopper, but I didn't see it at the time. I was just so tired that I didn't notice the facts were staring right at me. Yolanda gave me some pills to take to help with sleeping problems, she thinks I have insomnia." He placed his hands in his lap, "But anyway, one night I confronted Ulrich and we talked about it. We apologized to each other and it was like water under the bridge. The reason I did that was because even with Yumi, he wasn't happy. He wasn't happy because I was acting so upset about the whole thing and refused to talk it out. I acted like he was the bad guy and never tried to resolve the conflict. The mind can be a dangerous place when you're really tired."

"Were you happy when you confronted him?"

He nodded, "Definitely. I hated staying with William because I didn't want to be a bother. No matter how much he insisted I wasn't, I still couldn't help but feel like I was. He was a good friend that listened to my problems, though I couldn't tell him much because of Lyoko and all. . . I hang with William sometimes to forget that I'm different. Even if I really love Lyoko and fighting XANA _and_ being a hero, sometimes we all need a break. Ulrich and Yumi have each other, those lovebirds. Then you easily get Jeremie out of his room to hang out in town on the weekends whenever he isn't working on getting us into Sector Five. I want my own escape and that comes in the form of William. I got a laptop from my parents so I could make a video game with him, the art teacher really adores that we're working on a project that others can enjoy," Odd paused for a moment. He turned to Aelita, allowing apple green to clash against bright amber, "But Princess, what I mean by telling you this is that I want everyone happy, especially you and Jeremie. This fight of yours isn't helping the situation."

Aelita closed her eyes, "I know I know, but he gave up so easily on my father that it hurts."

"I wish I could understand," The cat-boy softly spoke, "But I can't. The best I can do is be a good friend and hear out your problems."

She sighed. Thoughts swam around her head. If Jeremie didn't want to look for her father. . . then, "I have to go to Lyoko." She stood up, looking at her friend. Odd blinked, surprise quickly flashing through them, "To Sector Five. I want to find some trace of my father."

Odd frowned, "Well that might not be too easy. You heard what Jeremie said. He's not very anxious to help."

"So? We don't need Jeremie do we?"

Quirking an eyebrow, Odd made a motion between her and himself, "We?"

"Just us! Just you and me, okay Odd?"

"Okay," Without hesitation, the svelte teen nodded and stood up, "Whatever you say Aelita."

* * *

Making it to the factory was completely easy, heading down both the rope and later the elevator. There wasn't really anything to be concerned about, XANA wasn't attacking so there was no rush. Aelita fled the elevator once they reached the supercomputer room, briskly walking to the monitor and began typing away at the keyboard of the quantum supercomputer, "Okay, I'll launch the procedure which'll automatically virtualize us in the Desert Sector."

Odd placed a hand underneath his chin, plopping down on the rim of the holo-sphere, "You'll also give us a countdown to reach the edge of the sector and meet Scipio to head to Sector Five?"

"Of course," She smiled at Odd, "We have one minute after virtualization to meet up with the transporter."

"It'll be a piece of cake!"

"Sometimes I wonder why don't you fess up to Jeremie that you understand some of the supercomputer," Aelita threw out casually as the ran back into the elevator.

The cat-boy grinned, "Well Princess, I'd think he get mad that I know so much and didn't help out." It was obvious he was joking, even Aelita knew that he rarely knew anything at all. It was that he understood the basic things of the computer, like the self-virtualization process and the entering of the code Scipio to enter Sector Five. He didn't understand the actual _coding_ that came with it, sadly enough.

Immediately once they reached the scanner room, Aelita took to the right scanner. Odd continued to walk forward until he reached the middle scanner which was always his choice in scanner. The doors slid shut in hers and in a quick second winds began to pick up. Her vision of the scanner door disappeared for a moment, then in turn the Desert Sector's orange-yellow plain appeared instead.

They both landed, taking off to head over to the edge of the sector. They didn't share a word throughout the process, all until they reached their goal, "It couldn't have been a minute since we got here," Odd noted with a smile, "We probably arrived a bit early."

Aelita beamed, "Well at least we made it with time to spare, look!" She pointed up to the large, white orb. It spun in its usual pattern as it reached out to the desert land and snatched them up. It ran off with them inside, before dropping them off in the Arena.

Odd immediately placed a paw over his stomach, a grimace on his face, "I knew I shouldn't have had the second helping of spaghetti..."

Dismissing his complaint, Aelita waited for the room to stop its spinning. Once it did, she lead the way, "Let's go!" The blonde nodded, lingering behind her as they went. They reached the beginning of the ever-changing sector, watching its doors slide open.

"This place always gives me the chills. Even with XANA not in the supercomputer anymore," Odd murmured from behind, "It's like it left its mark here, that it knows every inch of the place for being here so long."

Aelita frowned, "XANA _is_ a program. In its memory it could have recorded every inch of this place. Much like the rest of the sectors well before they began to be deleted. That's how it knew how to control the lands with fog, and even in the Desert Sector where it turned the plateaus into weird angles to stop me from deactivating the tower."

Sighing, the cat-boy looked away, "Sorry, that must have slipped my mind."

She resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands, "I'm sorry if that came off as rude, but we don't have time to discuss those things." She then smiled once they reached the Core Zone. She looked around, then pointed upward, "There's the key!"

He saluted, "Don't worry Princess, I'm all over it!" He ran towards the wall, digging his claws into it as he heaved himself to the next blue block.

 ** _Grooooan. Grooooan. Groan!_**

Aelita winced as a laser smacked her in the shoulder, "Looks like the Creepers found us." Energy fields in her hands, she began flinging them at the creatures, _"Energy Field!"_

Odd looked back for a moment, tearing off one of his paws to shoot off his ammo at a Creeper, _"Laser Arrow!"_

Groaning, the Creepers looked to be regaining their bearings, "Bizarre," She muttered, continuing to throw her pink weapons, "You think they were surprised to see us." Odd continued to head on up to the key, looking back every now and then to make sure he wasn't under fire. Whenever a stray Creeper laser would head to him, he would twist himself around to meet the laser and throw up his lilac shield.

"Maybe they are. After all, XANA wouldn't know about us heading on in here." Odd added from above, closing in on the key, "We're out of this place, Aelita!" He then flung himself off a block, slamming his fist into the key. The door nearby slid open, finally granting them access to the rest of Sector Five. He hopped down, carefully making sure he didn't lose any life points from the fall. Aelita noted that she was hit once, but Odd took no hits from any of the Creepers.

Taking off down the hall, they were _so close_ to the Celestial Dome when everything they went through became ruined, _"Aelita! Odd! I know you're there!"_ She clenched her hands at her sides, a frown on her face. If only they had a little more time, then she'd be able to enact what she wanted to do. But no, they were too late, _"For your information, while you're out there having a blast, XANA happens to be attacking. Ulrich and Yumi are already there on the spot."_

Odd stared at her for a moment, his eyes softening. He took a step forward, resting his paw on her shoulder, "Right now, it's your mission. You call the shots, not Jeremie. What do you want to do, Aelita?"

She stared down at the blue flooring of the Sector, glad that there wasn't a program for tears to appear. Miserably, she knew where her priorities had to lie at the moment, "Let's go." The elevator met up with them and both took the jump, landing on their speeding ride.

 _"As soon as you get to the dome I'll program a vehicle and then I'll open a tunnel. The activated tower is in the Mountain Sector, okay? Now get going."_

The Elevator stopped, the door to the Celestial Dome opening. Aelita took off, Odd following along behind her. When they reached it, Odd ran to the programmed vehicle, the Overboard, and hopped on. He quickly caught Aelita, allowing her to adjust to the slim purple ride. She swallowed as Odd took off, circling around in the Outer Sphere. The Overboard flew close to the giant walls of binary code and Aelita let her gaze fly over the large area. Her eyes widened at the sight of Mantas circling around the south pole of Sector Five, "Look, Odd!"

The cat-boy peered over, eyes widening at the sight, "They aren't attacking us! It's like they're guarding something over there..."

"Jeremie, we just spotted some flying Mantas at the south pole of the Dome! They seem to be guarding the entrance!"

 _"Now that is not a good sign. Hold on, I'll check it out,"_ Swinging back around, Odd stopped the Overboard in the air, _"Uh oh, looks like you were right. XANA's attacking the Core of Lyoko! The tower in the Mountain Sector was just a diversion!"_

Odd drove off towards the Mantas, "Okay, we'll take out the Mantas and stop the attack!"

"That's a suicide mission, Odd!" Aelita cried, "There's too many Mantas!"

He laughed, "You're kidding, Aelita! There isn't _enough_ Mantas!" He took aim, sweeping around the screeching Mantas. He quickly shot, smacking one of the Mantas, " _Laser Arrow!"_ Grinning as one of them exploded, he turned the Overboard back around and continued to fire. He suddenly winced as a shot hit his tail, "Ugh, sometimes I can't get a hold of where they shoot."

Aelita smiled, "Maybe you should throw one of your shoes? That'll get them to stay away." She held out her palm, throwing an energy field towards the lingering monsters. It exploded in a bright pink light, offsetting the Overboard just for a moment.

Rolling his eyes, Odd sarcastically laughed, "Ha ha, very funny." He craned his head around, holding his paw to the two Mantas chasing right behind them, " _Laser Arr-ah!"_ He screamed as he was shot off, one of the two Mantas behind exploding as well.

"Odd!" She cried, fear in her eyes as she watched the boy fall in the Outer Sphere. The other Manta that closed in on her bucked away, chasing down the flailing cat-boy. With wonder and a tad bit of fear, she watched as the Manta _caught him_.

"Whoa!" Odd dug his claws into the back of the creature, "I guess I have to thank you?" It screeched, taking off away from the entrance to the Core of Lyoko, "Okay, never mind! No thanking you, Manta!"

Aelita guided the Overboard towards the southern pole, "Odd! Do you need some help!?"

"Don't worry Princess, I can handle this! Just go stop XANA from destroying the Core!"

She nodded, flying into the entrance, knowing that Odd would be fine. They've all been through worse in this Sector. _"The first Shield to the Core has just given away!"_ She ran off once she made it through, jumping up the many blue blocks to reach the top. Three Mantas were shooting at the second shield. Most likely Creepers were lingering around, shooting at it as well, _"Aelita! Where are you?"_

"In trouble!" She shouted, continuing to hop along the blocks. Taking aim, she shot off one of her pink orbs at a Creeper. It curled up on impact and exploded into bits of data. The Mantas surrounding the Core screeched, flying away from it to head towards her. Their lasers were quickly absorbed by her energy fields that she combined together. The two blue and white creatures nearly hit the ground before they turned around, heading back to the top to repeat their attack once again.

 _"Hang on Aelita! Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi are almost there!"_

Aelita created another energy shield, allowing the lasers to hit the pink orbs. With Jeremie's words echoing, she could hear footsteps from down below. Yumi paused on one of the blocks, bringing out her fans to deflect the lasers heading her way. She then hopped onto a Manta, allowing her tessen fans to slice through the creature. She hopped off once it exploded, grabbing her fans as they flew.

Ulrich on the other hand continued to hop on the blue blocks, stopping to quickly stab his katana into the Creeper. He then deflected lasers from other Creepers, easily taking them out from afar. His chocolate brown eyes caught sight of a Manta shooting towards her and he used super sprint to reach the pinkette, deflecting the lasers shot at her, "Did we miss much of the show?" Ulrich joked.

She shook her head, "No, just the opening act."

"And here's the grand finale!" Odd called, flying in with the Manta that had caught him earlier. He buried his claws deeper into the blue and white creature, directing it straight into the other Manta. Both creatures screeched at one another before Odd threw himself at the nearest platform, the flying monsters exploding into bits of data, "Woo!" He stood up, buzzing with excitement, "Let's do that again!" A Creeper groaned behind Ulrich which the samurai quickly responded by stabbing it.

In the mic, Jeremie let out a sigh of relief, _"Nice work everyone. Aelita, you know that you still have a tower to deactivate. But if you want to stop at the interface first to collect some new data on Franz Hopper I wouldn't mind. . . . Uh, I mean, if you want to."_

Aelita placed a finger under her chin, trying to dismiss the wide smile that was growing on her face. "Yeah, why not?"

* * *

Jeremie typed away at the keyboard in his room, as what he usual did on any night. Aelita stood next to him, trying to keep herself from hovering over his shoulder, "Any luck?" She finally asked. She couldn't help it, she wanted to know if her father was out there. Jeremie had finally agreed to look for him and it felt like a weight off her shoulders. Her father could be back with her sometime soon if Jeremie can figure out a program for finding him soon.

Her leaned back in his chair after he finished typing and began clicking at his mouse, "No, nothing," Sadness tried to drag her down in a wave and feeling tears pool at her eyes, Aelita began to to walk away, "Wait a second... what's that?"

The pinkette quickly turned around, "What have you found?"

"A fragment of a DNA code sequence that belongs to... Franz Hopper. You're right, Aelita!"

Flabbergasted, she murmured, "My father might still be alive somewhere on Lyoko!" Smiling, Aelita looked at Jeremie. Crystal blue met apple green and he too, smiled back at her.


	5. Final Round

**Note:** This is the second-to-final chapter. Also, this chapter will have another major change from the actual series so I do apologize if you do not like it. I do have the next chapter semi-based on an episode, but mainly it will diverge from the canon as much as it can. Thank you for reading so far, it means a lot to me. Enjoy.

 _ **Additional Notes:**_ Revised and edited as of 10/12/18. Check chapter one's notes for what has been changed.

* * *

 **5\. Final Round**

"Alright, I'll explain everything."

William frowned, "So all those weird disappearing acts you pulled? You'll explain that?" Having the blonde suddenly come to him spouting a reason why he ran away at weird times was a shock. Especially since he always thought he'd never talk about it. Odd talked about most things, but if they were secrets then he would clamp his mouth shut or change the subject. Reading him was like an open book, but sometimes he thought the svelte teen made it that way for some reason.

"Yup," Odd plopped down next to him on the bench, "All cause Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremie, Aelita, and I fight to save the world. And we're extending you an invitation to help us fight a crazed AI named XANA that wants to rule the world. We fight it in a virtual world called Lyoko. Seems like I'm pretty crazy, right?"

The raven snorted, "It sounds like you're insane, but it does explain the weird dream I had."

Leaning back, the purple clad teen placed his arms behind his head, "Where you had to defuse a bomb for us?"

". . .so you aren't joking," William deadpanned.

"Of course, Will!" At the sharp look of his friend, the amber eyed blonde laughed, "Just had to make sure you understood that I was serious about the whole thing. We need another person to help us and you're the best bet. All of us want you on the team."

The silver-eyed teen ran his fingers through his hair, "One, stop calling me Will. Two, I'll join this team of yours. It won't hurt, unlike how it hurts that all our data's gone."

Odd frowned, "I still don't know how my laptop broke! I swear, I think someone in the class got jealous of our project, snuck into my dorm and busted it! All of that data and work, gone!" He then placed a finger underneath his chin, "But still, at least the Professor switched our full-year game to help plan a _dance_ so we don't fail this semester."

"Which is next week," William reminded, "And so far we came up with nothing. Not a theme, decorations, nor guidelines for it!"

He waved his hand, "Don't worry about that Will, we can make it based around whatever we want! He'll like whatever we come up with, even if it's last minute planning," He hummed, "Do you have any suggestions for what it can be about?"

The raven shrugged, "It could be about nature, I suppose. Like uh. . . the background designs I was coming up with for our game. I still got the rough sketches in my notebook," William sighed, "I swear, the background designs I was coming up with and the characters you were making were _perfect_! I can't believe someone would do that to us to make our project fall flat so fast!"

"Yeah," Odd quietly added, "The powers they had, the separation from the established law as the backstory... it was really coming in. The main characters were going to develop into a family rather than just a rag-tag group looking to find their place in the world. Presented by the protagonist, a small boy with white hair that feared mankind because of the ways he saw them treat him with his curse..." He then flailed, "Oh crap! I totally forgot!"

"What?!" William jolted, thrown off by the sudden bounce in energy. He was enjoying their conversation, something he always did when it came to the svelte teen. He always had this calming aura that tamed his wild one and he couldn't place a finger on why that was.

The blonde then laughed, "I forgot they wanted to know if you'd accept. They're like right behind us over at a wall there wondering if you'd accept. But I trusted that you would and hey, you did."

Grinning, William stood up, "Then why don't we tell them the good news?"

"Of course!" Odd bounced up. He then paused, his smile turning into a frown, "But can you promise me something, Will?"

"What is it?"

"I want you to promise me that you won't get cocky. It isn't a game on Lyoko. I know you'll be excited and all, but you have to take it seriously." Odd's amber eyes suddenly changed. One minute, they practically glowed with innocence, the next they were haunted by a dark storm of emotions that William simply couldn't identify.

William nodded, "Of course, Odd. You kept your promises to me, why would I not keep promises for you?" A promise was a promise and it'd be horrible of him to deny his close friend this. He would take it seriously for him, even if some things may turn bumpy on the road. He'll try his best though, just for the blonde.

Odd smiled, the shine of light returning back into his eyes, "Good! Come on Will, I bet they can't wait to congratulate you for deciding to join our little group!"

* * *

The trip to the factory was by faint memory. He was glad that the rest of the group was guiding him, or else he'd have trouble understanding the rest of the travel. They plied into an elevator before stopping to let Jeremie out in a big, dark green room with a chair and a wide computer monitor. Then the rest of them went down to a room filled with three tubes or "scanners" as Odd chattered about to him while they went.

"You swear not to give away the secret?" Yumi asked. Knowing the rest of Odd's friends did this was a bit of a breather to why they also disappeared at random times. Sometimes, if he thought about it a bit _too_ much he would think they didn't like him.

"I swear." William avowed.

"Good answer, William," Jeremie's voice spoke from the above floor, though it was a bit hard to hear him, "Now for the final step, the scanner. We're going to record a virtual image of you in the supercomputer. After that, you'll be immune to the returns to the past. That'll really make you a part of the group." The scanner in front of him opened, showing the lit insides of nothing but smooth metal.

"Are you ready?" Ulrich asked, wearing a snarky smile, "You scared?"

"Me? No, why?" Chuckling, he added, "Were you scared the first time?

Immediately the brunette denied it, "No!"

Odd snorted, "Don't believe it! It's more like you put poor innocent Kiwi in there and I got to be virtualized instead when I came to his rescue. If that doesn't scream scared I don't know what does!"

Glaring, Ulrich scoffed, "I was making sure I didn't get hurt or anything."

"But my diggity dog deserved whatever the scanner would have done to him?"

"It isn't like that," Ulrich dismissed, "And I went after you when you got in there. What happened has happened."

Yumi peered at the raven, "You sure you don't want to change your mind?"

"Are you kidding?" William entered the scanner, a blank look on his face. He faced the group of four as the doors slid shut in front of him. A boiling hot feeling slid over his body immediately as strange winds picked up. It dug deep into his skin, like an acid waiting to burn. He shuttered as a voice echoed from afar, _"Scanner: William."_ The prickling, warm sensation over his skin began to decrease as the light became too intense for his eyes. He shut them with a wince, _"Welcome to the club, William!"_

The doors slid open once he laid his hand against the wall, suddenly feeling as if all his energy was taken away. Silently, he swore that the machine was _supposed_ to make him feel that way. He hoped not.

"Well, tell us how you feel now!" Odd voiced calmly, wearing with a serious expression.

"Ready to take on XANA and his monsters," He smirked, "And I just can't wait to see what I look like on Lyoko."

Yumi raised a finger, "Get real! XANA is much more dangerous and devious than you can imagine."

"Plus, before you can put up a decent fight on Lyoko it's going to take time. A _lot_ of time." Ulrich added.

"At first you better just hang back to check things out," Aelita pulled the skin under her eye for a moment before continuing on, "And to try to learn."

William laughed a bit nervously, raising his hands in a placating manner, "Okay okay, don't flip out. I'm not the guy who tries to steal the show." Odd suddenly burst with laughter, forcing him to correct himself, "Well, not _all_ the time. Just call me out on it when I'm doing that."

* * *

As quickly as the initiation went, William found himself following the gang back out. Odd was the first to break the silence with his usual babble, "I really hope that XANA doesn't go on the attack tomorrow. I signed up for the inter-academy skateboard championship!"

Aelita smiled, "Think you're gonna win?"

The blonde with a purple splotch shrugged, "Have to gauge the competition before I say something."

"You should always aim for the top, though," William added on.

Ulrich snorted, "Why not? When you fall back down you'll crash a lot harder." The raven couldn't help it, he laughed at the brunette's joke with the others. Even if it was something small as cracking jokes but silently, he swore that hanging with them was going to be fun.

* * *

The next day came after a good night's sleep. William quickly met up with one happy-go-lucky blonde who carried a bag of skateboarding equipment and a slightly tired brunette, "I'm glad you guys came to cheer me on!" Odd chirped.

Ulrich lazily smiled, "Anything for you good buddy, Yumi's stuck watching Hiroki anyways," He then placed his hands behind his head, "And she doesn't like it when both him and I are around each other. Let's just say. . . things go wrong when it's like that."

William snickered, "You team up against her or something?" He would admit, he did have feelings for the Japanese girl. But that was back then when he hung out with her, he didn't really hang out with her much anymore because she spent most of her time with the brunette. He respected their decision to become a couple but if something went sour—most likely it wouldn't, they look too happy for anything to go wrong—then he'd sweep in and take Yumi from Ulrich. But he wouldn't make it a competition, that'd be foolish of him to pull that when two people are happy.

"Nope!" The brunette casually answered, "It becomes a total war zone at her house. Him versus me for her attention. Turns out she doesn't like it when we get to stage two."

Odd grinned, "Stage two is full on puppy eyes from you, let me guess that Hiroki has his own too."

"Ding ding ding!" Ulrich waggled his finger in the air as Odd opened the gymnasium doors, "We have a winner!" The room was crowded with people that either came to watch the competition or participate. In the middle of the wide room lied a giant half-pipe for the skateboarders and close to it was the pulled out bleachers. They walked to the bleachers, where Odd set down a bag of equipment and began to don his helmet and his pads.

Both him and Ulrich plopped down on the second to third row of bleachers, "Good luck, Odd," Ulrich chuckled, "I don't want to have to pick you up and dust you off every time you face plant!"

William snorted, "I would also say knock them dead, but I think the term make them flip out from your flips would work better! But all the same, good luck Odd!"

Odd saluted, practically radiating with joy, "At least I know my good friends have my back!"

"Good afternoon, everyone!" Jim shouted, bringing the chattering students in the gymnasium to a silence, "Kadic Academy is very proud to welcome you all today to this grand skateboard championship. I'm sure all of you are going to knock us out with your nollies, your kick-flips and other smith grinds."

"That's incredible that you're really up on your skateboarding Jim." Ulrich commented.

Jim nodded, "Yep, I sure am. Actually, I was a roller derby champion way back in the seventies."

The brunette shrugged, "Oh, what a shame that you'd rather not talk about it?"

"Actually, I'd be glad to but I. . . don't have the time." Jim lifted his whistle and blew, "Okay! Into the pipe, all of ya!" Odd snagged his skateboard, walking away to the ever-growing line of participants. William placed his arms behind his head, leaning back into his seat. Ulrich rested his hand on his chin, placing his elbow on his leg.

They watched the competition as kids either made their flips or failed horribly. As the line dwindled, Ulrich turned his gaze to him, "So... how's your day been?" The casual question was horrible and welcomed at the same time. The duo never really _talked_ outside of being with Odd or Yumi. William never really hung out with Odd's friends and even if he did, they were secretive. Probably because of Lyoko, but still. William didn't know _how_ to speak with them. Heck, he rarely even talked with Yumi outside of classes. Odd was the only one insistent of talking with him and that's how they became great friends in the first place.

"Good." William winced at his tone, which was clipped and void of continuing the conversation, "How's Yumi?" He slapped his hand to his face. Bad question.

Ulrich wore a smile, either from William hitting himself of imagining Yumi the raven didn't know, "She's great. I'm thankful we get along well, even if there is a couple of bumps in the road. Really, I have to be thankful of you talking to me with the whole pool incident back then or else I wouldn't know how to have repaired our relationship."

Silver eyes widened, "Oh. . . It's no problem." He didn't even know that his words kept them together. At the pool and all with Ulrich's worry and jealousy it left both the Japanese girl and the German boy in a bad situation that he was pretty sure wasn't supposed to be brought up. But the brunette brought it up, so William didn't know what to do, "I'm glad you're happy."

"You'll find someone for yourself," Ulrich pushed on his knees to sit straight, "It'll just take time, that's all."

William sighed, he didn't even want to touch the subject even if he _did_ bring it up. It was his fault, really, "Don't worry about that," He dismissed, "I'll figure it out for myself. But thank you for the advice."

Ulrich gazed back at the half-pipe, "No problem," He smirked, "Looks like Odd is having a bit too much fun on the half-pipe." He pointed to where the blonde was continuously flipping around on each side, folding his hands into peace signs and two-finger salutes. William couldn't help it, he began to clap at his friend's crazy flips. The brunette followed along as well before jumping out of his seat and cheering with the rest of the crowd.

After another minute of skating around, the boy finally skated to a halt, "And there you go! The perfect combination of exceptional skills and incredible elegance!" Grinning, he folded his arms, "In a word, classy." A dark-skinned female skated over, her back to both William and Ulrich.

"Hey Odd!" She cheerfully chirped, "Great run out there!"

"S-S-S-Sam?!" Odd immediately lost all composure of "classy", for his cheeks became tomato red and he slipped of his skateboard, hitting the middle of the half-pipe. He raised his finger, cheeky smile on his face, "How are you?"

"Not bad."

Ulrich snorted from beside him, sitting back down with a whimsical smile on his face, "Now that was real class."

Odd giggled, raising his hand, "Would you like to help a gentlemen like me up?"

She chuckled as she yanked him up, "Of course."

William raised an eyebrow, "Who's that?"

"That's Samantha Knight," Ulrich murmured, "The only girlfriend that really made Odd act like that. She used to go to another school, but I thought she was living out on the coast now. Maybe something changed? I wouldn't know."

As if Odd knew the duo was talking about the subject, he began to question the lady as they sat down a row ahead of him, "I'm really glad to see you Sam! But, aren't you supposed to be living somewhere out on the coast?"

She leaned back, smiling, "I am, but I also signed up for the championship. I'm only here for the day."

"Samantha Knight!"

"My turn! Don't move, I'll be right back!" Beaming, she threw her skateboard down and took off towards the half-pipe.

Odd leaned forward, placing his hands against his cheeks as they began to redden, "How weird is it to run into her! I'd almost forgotten how cool and pretty she is."

"And how you're really in love with her," Ulrich added.

The blonde threw his hands into the air, losing his composure once again, "Come on! Can't you like somebody without being in love?"

William decided to add on, "Maybe I can, but that's a no to you."

He stuck his tongue out, "You two are jerks."

"Jerks that came to cheer you on, good buddy," Ulrich snickered.

Odd huffed, turning away to watch Sam on the half-pipe. William chortled as the brunette next to him cackled, holding his stomach as he laughed. The joke was pretty funny, probably more funny to Ulrich for some reason rather than him. The raven never even heard about Sam but after watching her talk with the blonde he could safely conclude that Odd was in love with her.

After a moment of her skating, Odd went off back to the half-pipe. She sat down in Odd's place, watching him with a pleased smile, "Oh that Odd he's so," She looked at a loss of words, "He's so-"

Ulrich grinned, "So messy! You wouldn't believe what his room looks like!"

"He's like me," Sam giggled, "My room's a permanent disaster zone."

William hummed, "He's also such a klutz. You wouldn't believe how much of a mess he gets into because of his carelessness."

She placed a hand on her heart, "You wouldn't believe how much trouble I get into because I'm a klutz as well!"

"Seems you two were made for each other." Ulrich joked. William actually agreed with that one. Sam was totally in love with Odd and Odd was foolishly in love with Sam. They were totally _meant_ to be together and if the raven had to figure out a way to pull a few strings to make them hook up, he wouldn't hesitate to do so.

 _ **Ring! Ring!**_

Ulrich blinked, digging his hand into his pocket. He yanked out his phone and quickly answered it after he looked at who was calling him, "Aelita?" Chocolate brown eyes met silver and the boy grimaced, "No problem. I'll tell Odd and William and we'll be right there."

William raised his eyebrow, "What is it Ulrich-?"

"Ulrich Stern!" The brunette immediately pulled his phone away from his ear. He hung up and from William's gaze he could tell the boy tensed up all of a sudden, "Someone here would like to see you." Looking at the principal, William quickly stared at a man dressed in a business suit.

"Hello Ulrich," The man's tone was calm, but the gaze he sent to the brunette was filled with disappointment.

William wanted to ask who this man was, but clearly he could tell. Especially with Ulrich's words, "Dad! But-" He shook his head, hopping down the steps to quickly face the man, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm worried about your grades, son. That's the reason why I came. I think you and I have to talk."

Ulrich shook his head, "I'm sorry but today-" He rubbed his head, "Today isn't a very good time."

The man stared at Ulrich, "And I think the time is long overdue."

"It's just that I wasn't expecting to see you-"

"-And I wasn't expecting to receive a report card as bad as yours was. Come with me now, Ulrich. Mr. Delmas was kind enough to lend us his office." The brunette looked conflicted, raising his hand to his mouth. He grunted, fleeing to sit next to Sam. William leaned down, needing to hear this as well, "Sam! Can you give Odd a message for me?" He then pointed to William, "He has to leave early so he wouldn't be able to do it."

She smiled, "Yeah, sure."

"Tell him to get to he-knows-where right away." William immediately caught onto the line, understanding it after the whole thing he went through the day before. He needed to get to Lyoko and when Sam told the blonde, he'd be with him too.

"Okay." Ulrich fled back to his dad and with that, William hopped off the bleachers and took off out of the gymnasium doors.

* * *

He quickly met up with the pinkette in the supercomputer room. She was sitting in the seat and looked puzzled when it was just him, "Where's Odd and Ulrich?"

"Odd was skating when I took off, Ulrich got in trouble with his father about his grades. Sam should tell him about Lyoko," William then took out his phone, "But as a backup in case she forgets, I texted him the situation. He should check his phone when he gets done."

Aelita nodded, "Alright then, thank you William." She then pointed to the screen, "If XANA's monsters destroy the sphere inside the virtual world, Lyoko is gone for good! Without Lyoko we don't have any way of fighting XANA!"

William leaned over the armrest, frowning, "I read you loud and clear, Aelita. We need to head to Lyoko now, we can't wait for the others."

"We _have_ to. It can't just be us." She shook her head, "Plus, Ulrich and Yumi don't know how to self-virtualize themselves."

"But does Odd?"

Frowning, she rubbed her temples, "Yes, but that doesn't mean we should just go on without them."

He clapped his hands together, "We'll be the first wave. Even _if_ I'm inexperienced, we can still do some damage together. Then when all three of them get here, they'll finish off whatever is left! We shouldn't waste time like this arguing about it, Aelita. We need to make our move now or else everything will be over for Lyoko. Wasn't the reason you guys recruited me was for situations like this?"

Aelita grimaced, clicking away at the supercomputer, "Let me call Jeremie one more time." William huffed, tuning out the conversation the pinkette would be having with the genius. He just _didn't_ understand. He hated that he may have sounded impatient because it was his first time, but still. They needed to make their move right now or everything would be over. And with how Aelita sounded nervous earlier when she showed him the core on the screen, he would think they would take off without any hesitance.

"Come on William, let's go." He snapped back into the conversation once his name was said, She typed away at the keyboard once again, hopping out of the chair, "I've started the virtualization process to bring us directly into Sector Five. We only have a few seconds to get to the scanner room and go in."

William started off to the elevator, "What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Once the pinkette entered the elevator, William pressed the down button. The elevator went down a floor before opening, showing off the scanner room he was just in a day ago. Heading to the left scanner, he entered it and quickly faced Aelita who stood in the right scanner. The doors slowly shut in front of him, allowing winds to pick up inside it once it had sealed itself closed. An eerie hum echoed around him before a cold, icy feeling consumed him. Suddenly, as quick as it was there, it disappeared in favor of a calm, empty one.

His vision of the lit scanner disappeared in a quick blink. Once he opened his eyes again, it was to a big, blue and white room. The walls spun around in a pattern that almost made him dizzy and he hit the ground with his feet. Something heavy rested on his back as he caught sight of Aelita who looked like an elf and dressed in pink and white.

Silver eyes looked over his own body, which was dressed in a long sleeved grey shirt with black at the ends of the sleeves, even with red spikes outstretching from a bracelet on his left wrist. He also wore black for his pants with jagged red lines and white-black boots. He grinned at the sight of a long, white sword with red lines decorating it, "Wow... that's some pretty classy gear." He turned to Aelita, tilting his head, "And you? No weapon? You fight with your bare hands? No superpower?"

She clenched her fists together, "This isn't a video game, William," Aelita glared at him, "Let me remind you that we have an important mission to accomplish."

 _That_ certainly got him to focus on the real problem at hand, "Sorry about that Aelita," He couldn't blame the fact that it was his first time or else she'd be regretting the decision to go on ahead, "So, where do we go first?"

"Follow me," She walked off, "We only have a couple of minutes to trip a key that gets us into the chamber to the Core of Lyoko." Picking up his sword, William followed along. If he kept expressing his excitement of his first time, he would think he'd make the pinkette even more angry at him. She needed to focus on getting them to the Core, not be angry with him.

The room around them finally stopped spinning, opening an exit for them. Aelita ran off into it and as fast as he could, William kept up. Even with the sword being as heavy as it was, surprisingly he was faster than the elf-girl. They reached the end of the tunnel to a room filled with blue blocks. It was empty as Aelita stepped forward, her apple green eyes roaming around the room, "The key! It's over there!" She pointed to a weird thing on the wall that looked like an eye. Much like what was on the bottom of the first room they entered in, but this one was blue.

William took off, "I'm on it!"

"No, wait!"

A block raised itself from the ground, halting his run. Suddenly, a groan erupted from another side of the room, "What's that noise I hear?" He muttered, looking around the wide blue room.

Aelita looked left, "Creepers!" She shouted as a weird, brown and grey thing crawled out from a hole that suddenly opened from the ground. It quickly faced him, its arms skinnier than the rest of its body as it dragged itself along the ground, its silver tail following along. More came along, emitting their groaning noises.

Grinning, William heaved his sword up, "You take care of the key, Aelita. I'll handle the monsters!" He strutted forward, sword out ready to swing.

"Watch it, they can be really tough!" Aelita voiced her concerns.

"Works for me, I'm tough as well." He charged at the monsters. One of them opened its mouth, shooting a red laser. William raised his sword, flinging the laser back at the creature. It exploded once the laser hit its head and the raven grinned. He sliced the closest one with his big sword, watching it explode in a white blast. One by one, the number of monsters dwindled until there were two left.

Aelita finally spoke up, "William! It's okay, come over here!" Another Creeper exploded in his face and William gazed at the pinkette. The key looked like was flattened against the wall, making it look like time was up for his Creeper destroying spree.

Although he knew he should have continued the mission, he couldn't help but protest, "Wait! Just one or two more and we can go." He grinned as two more crawled over, "I want to make sure none of them give us trouble once we take off!"

"William!" Suddenly her voice had gotten softer and the raven perked up. Silver eyes caught sight of a giant blue wall that sprouted out of nowhere.

"Huh, Aelita?" He walked to the wall, placing his hand along it, "Why is this here?"

 _"Aelita!"_ Jeremie's voice rang from above. William looked up at the sky, backing away from the wall slowly. Was that how people in the real world talked with them? _"What's going on? Where are Ulrich and Yumi?"_

Unable to hear Aelita's voice any longer, William backed away from the blue wall. He frowned, heaving his sword over his shoulder once again as he looked at his side of the room. He had to find a way out and get back to Aelita and with that, he tried to take off. What stopped him though, was a weird creature that reminded him of a sea creature. Deciding to try to speak to the blonde genius, he spoke up, "Hey, Jeremie! There's this weird looking creature that just showed up! Like some kind of uh. . . giant jellyfish?"

 _"What?! Aelita! You have to get to William! Odd, you head to the Core and try to stop XANA from destroying it! Both of you hurry! You know the way Odd, so get going! Aelita, you have to go around the outside!"_ William grimaced as he backed away from the creature that kept on trying to get close to him. Hearing Jeremie direct the pink elf was humorous, in a way, _"Take the next hallway on your left! No, left! Faster before the Scyphozoa goes after William!"_

William glared at the creature, "So you're called the Scyphozoa?" He raised his sword, carefully watching the creature. If it made any sudden moves at him, he'd surely slice at it.

 _"Take the corridor on the right, go on! William, you get out of there! Hurry up! William, do you hear me?!"_

"I'm not afraid of some dumb jellyfish-"

 _'I want you to promise me that you won't get cocky. It isn't a game on Lyoko. I know you'll be excited and all, but you have to take it seriously._ '

He backed away from it, albeit slowly, "I take that back. I don't _want_ to run away but is that the only option?"

 _"William, just do what I say! I don't know what the Scyphozoa's wants with you but it can't be_ _good!"_ The raven flinched as the creature slammed its tentacles into his hands, forcing him to drop his sword. It skidded away along the ground, coming to a stop at the other side of the room.

"Looks like it doesn't want me to have my weapon," William muttered before facing off the creature once again.

 _"Aelita! Take the next hallway on your left. It's not much further! Odd, your Overboard will appear in just a second. Get ready to battle the swarm of Creepers in there! And William, you have to get out of there right now! William, do you read me?!"_

He walked to his sword, picking it up. With one last glance at the creature, he took off, "I hear you, Jeremie! I'm going- ah!" He shrieked, a cold feeling encasing his body. He felt himself lifted and his sword fell from his limp hand. He couldn't move, couldn't fight, couldn't do _anything_ at that moment. Everything became quiet all of a sudden, like there wasn't anything around him he had to worry about. His limp body didn't protest as two tentacles touched his head, nor did it when he felt the icy clutches consume his body. He had thought he couldn't feel anything in the virtual world but at that moment, everything was _cold_.

William didn't even recognize his body touching the ground, all he could see was the blue of the room. His body clawed itself into a stand and it grabbed his sword. Sound reached his ears after a moment, and it was Aelita's voice, "William, are you okay?"

The raven's body was panting all of a sudden before it roared and looked at the pinkette. The room was blurry but Aelita's pink and white outfit stood out from the blue. Pink orbs appeared in the palms of her hands and she shot at him but all his body did was raise its sword and absorb them. He suddenly shot forward and his sword sank into her body. A dark green exploded all over the elf and her scream snapped him back into reality. He couldn't control his body, he couldn't stop her screams as she exploded in green pixels.

A shiver raked through his body as it shouted some sort of battle cry, like it was _pleased_ she was gone. Then it shot off with its increased speed, reaching some sort of wall before it phased through. There was Odd, dressed as some sort of purple cat-boy. The room was empty and from a floor above, the blonde frowned at him, "So, XANA. Taking a good friend of mine's body? Just like Ulrich that one time," He tutted, tail twitching behind him, "How low can a computer virus get?"

His body roared at the cat-boy and he took off jumping upward. Odd continued to sit in his spot, frowning before he raised his paws, _"Laser arrow!"_ Small, golden pieces launched from his paws, heading for him. William watched helplessly as his body gripped his sword and positioned it in front of him. The arrows immediately bounced off the big red-white weapon and the cat-boy fled from his perch to dodge them.

William's possessed body heaved his sword above his head and chucked it. Odd's amber eyes widened and he pounced away from his new perch. The blonde with a purple splotch flung himself into the older male and both hit the ground. Odd wrapped his paws around his wrists and pinned him to the ground, panting even though the virtual world shouldn't have made him winded, "This'll go from bad to worse if your Creepers get in there soon," Odd murmured. William continued to hear every word even if he couldn't move any part of his body, "But can I safely say that you lose?"

The possessed raven's mouth opened with a roar and bucked the cat-boy off. Familiar groaning echoed from above and suddenly his sword tumbled next to him. He picked it up and his limited field of vision caught sight of Creepers climbing to different blocks. The one closest to him pulled its slim arm back and if the silver eyed boy had to guess, it must be the reason why his sword came back to his body. The thing that possessed him picked up his sword and quickly positioned it under Odd's chin and the blonde quickly halted himself from getting up, _"Shoot it."_ His voice was deeper than before and the monsters let out a chorus of groans.

"Why don't you devirtualize me before you do it?" Odd stared up at him and if he could flinch, William would've from the cold look in his friend's amber eyes.

He felt a sick, twisted grin grow on his face, _"You're mine, cat-boy."_ The Creepers began to have red glows appear in front of them, _"Fire!"_ As one, they shot the two cubed thing that surrounded a sphere.

Odd stared at the core, eyes wide, "The first shield, gone already..." William's limited gaze left the cat-boy in favor of staring at what the Creepers shot at.

 _"Fire!"_ His voice yelled again. Red consumed the only other clear cube that surrounded a glowing orange sphere.

"WILLIAM!" Ulrich's voice roared from below and suddenly, the sword positioned at the cat-boy's neck left it. Odd immediately raised his paws, shooting at the raven. William gladly accepted the attack but his body did not, for it raised his left wrist and the red spike bracelet allowed it to deflect and hit the wall. Scrambling away from him, Odd took off and continued to climb up.

William watched, unable to do anything as his body gazed at the cat-boy and pointed, " _Get him!_ " Then he threw his sword below to the ground and jumped off to face both Ulrich and Yumi. Ulrich was dressed as a samurai, carefully looking at him. Yumi, on the other hand, was dressed as a geisha and was hopping up the blocks. It looked like those two were simply _made_ for each other.

"You don't look happy to see me," Ulrich muttered, chocolate brown eyes staring at him as he walked to his sword, "Just like me when I saw my dad." William picked up his sword from the blue ground, heaving it over his shoulder. The brunette charged first, running at him in an yellow blur. Once he got close to him, he pulled out his sword from a sheathe along his hip, "It isn't nice to keep people captive. Then again, it isn't nice to destroy a world either." William raised his sword, whipping a weird beam from it. Ulrich raised his sword to meet it, absorbing one but the other quickly flung it away.

Ulrich stared at it for a moment but it was a moment the raven's body used against him. Charging at him, he stabbed his sword through the samurai's gut. A heart-wrenching scream left the boy as green covered his character. Once again, much like what happened with Aelita the boy exploded in green pixels. William's body snarled, dashing to the blocks to quickly chase after the other fighter than ran off.

His body swiftly landed behind the geisha after just a few seconds and much like how Ulrich went out, his sword stabbed through the geisha and turned her into green pixels. Her own painful scream reached his ears. Coiling at his gut were emotions that scared the silver eyed boy and a deep wave of guilt hit him. If he hadn't have been so foolish this wouldn't have happened. The cloudy vision of his gazed along the room, seeing that there were no Creepers left nor sign of Odd.

"Hey XANA!" Odd's voice echoed around, "Have a load of this! _Laser arrow!"_ The raven's body roared as two arrows hit his right shoulder, electricity sparking from the damage. The monster that took over him whipped his head around, trying to locate him until it stopped at the block next to him. Odd grinned, tacking him to the ground. His sword slid away, falling off of the block they were on. Odd raised his paws, amber eyes staring at him, "I'll see you on the other side, Will."

Arrows rained at his chest and even with his murky vision, William watched as his virtual form disappeared in blue pixels. The last thing he saw in Lyoko was Odd, who suddenly looked horrified. The cat-boy's body began to disappear in blue and white pixels as the sense of emptiness swallowed him. William tumbled out of the scanner, clutching his throat to try to _breathe_.

The raven took his fingers away from his neck, squeezing them, "I-I. . . I got my body back." He muttered, disbelief on his face. Something hit the ground nearby and he gazed at Odd, who laid on the floor. He crawled to the purple clad blonde, grabbing his hand, "Odd! Say something!"

"Something," The words were quiet, solemn for some reason. William watched as his friend sat up and buried his hands into his face, "I screwed up, Will-"

"You didn't, I did. I didn't listen to you, and I'm so sorry."

Odd shook his head, "No, you did. From what Jeremie kept telling me when you took out Aelita, it sounded like you were going to leave but the Scyphozoa got you. I failed because there was one Creeper left and I focused on getting you out of there and forgot to get it. Lyoko is gone, William." He pulled away, grabbing the side of the scanner to lift himself up, "And it's my fault."

William shook his head, holding it as a wave of dizziness consumed him. He pushed himself off the ground, standing up in the bright room, "Odd, you did your best. You didn't know what that thing could do with my body."

". . .you're right, I guess." Odd muttered, shutting his eyes. "But right now, let's try to head back up. If they say anything to you. . ." He trailed off. He looked out of it for just a second before he shook his head, "Never mind." The cat-boy of Lyoko let go of the scanner, his movement limited.

William held out his hands a couple of times, "Don't fall," He murmured quietly.

"Right," Odd responded, falling into a slow walk to the elevator. With guilt weighing him down, William followed along. Silently, he swore to never let that happen again. . .

. . .even if they make a decision to kick him out for his mistake.

* * *

The supercomputer room's aura felt cold. William stared at the ground, huddled close to the elevator, "With what happened today, we can try to report our losses." Odd was sitting next to him, the only comfort that he could welcome. Odd _saved_ him. The raven couldn't have been more thankful of it, even with what happened after. Ulrich also sat close to both of them, but sat on Odd's other side. He could tell the brunette was worried, especially when both of them stumbled in like they were drunk. Yumi stood close to the holo-sphere and Aelita stood near Jeremie at the supercomputer.

"Lyoko and the chance of re-materializing my father," Aelita spat. She covered her face, "I knew I should have waited, I just _knew_."

William buried his head into his knees, unable to find his voice. Odd continued to defend him, "Even if you waited, we still would have ran into some problems, Princess."

She thew her hands into the air, "Like what?! We could have stopped the Scyphozoa from getting him if we had waited! We could have stopped his attack if we hadn't have gone ahead! Who knows what XANA's doing right now, knowing that he's gotten rid of his enemies?!"

Odd shot up, "It doesn't change what has happened, Aelita! Could haves are different things than reality. There's nothing you can do to undo what has happened. We can only grow from this."

"How?" Jeremie muttered, face buried into his hands, "There's nothing we can do to fight XANA now."

"There's always a light at the end of the tunnel." Odd stated, "I firmly believe that before, and I believe it now too. We've just hit a bump in the road, that's all."

"My _father_ is a bump in the road?" Aelita snapped.

Yumi raised her hands, "Aelita, that's not what he said-"

"Stay out of this, Yumi!" She cried, apple eyes alight with anger as she glared at the blonde, "It's just _our_ chat right now. Why are you so sure that everything will be okay, Odd!?"

William finally looked up, seeing the purple blonde clutch at his own chest, "Because I for one don't want to seem pessimistic. I'm optimistic of the situation at hand. If your father survived giving you back your memories, he survived this. He can help us, Aelita. All we have to do is wait for him to step in. He trusts us with protecting you, Princess. We're doing what he couldn't have done back then. We're _fighting_ the monster he created. And I for one, believe that one day we will win against it," She stared speechless at the svelte teen, "Playing the blame game isn't going to help, Aelita."

". . .I'm sorry, William." Aelita apologized softly.

The silver eyed boy stared at her, "I'm sorry too. I took things too far and treated it like a game, I made a mess of things, and I'm sorry."

Silence consumed the room for a couple of minutes until Aelita finally spoke up again with a suggestion, "Why don't we go to the Hermitage?"

* * *

The Hermitage as it turned out was Aelita's childhood home. Each room he saw was filled with destruction and he stopped himself from asking the pinkette why it was like this. She might not want to talk with him, especially with her fight with Odd earlier. He sat down on the ground next to the couch as Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi sat themselves on it. Aelita stood away from them, viewing a photo. Jeremie walked close to the four, addressing the room, "We have no other way to fight XANA now. The entire world is in danger."

Ulrich sighed, "It's impossible to even imagine it."

"With all that's happened, do you think XANA's plotting something to get rid of us for good right now?" Yumi murmured.

William covered his face, "This is all so horrible."

"I was really hoping," Aelita chimed in from afar, "I'd see my father again."

Jeremie turned towards her, "I'm sorry. I did everything I could."

"I know you did, Jeremie." She set the photo back down on the table.

 _ **Beep! Beep! Beep!**_

All six whipped their heads to Jeremie's laptop, which began to beep madly. The boy genius opened his computer, "Hey!" He sounded shocked, "What the!? . . .This is incredible!"

Odd leaned forward from his seat, "Well, tell us! What's going on?"

"I just received a coded message," Jeremie confessed, "A message directly from the internet and it's signed. . ."

"Who!?" Aelita stood still, "Tell us, Jeremie!"

"...Franz Hopper."

The gang gasped, even William who quickly concluded the man had to be important. He wasn't fully informed about the situation but if it left them shocked like this then it had to be something important. The room was left speechless until Aelita spoke up, her voice filled with relief, "My father is still alive?"


	6. Into the Uncertain

_**Additional Note:**_ Edited as of 10/12/18. Check chapter one's notes for what has changed.

* * *

 **6\. Into the Uncertain**

"Ah!" Odd placed his hands against his chest, skipping towards the bench. Ulrich sipped on his soda calmly, though raised an eyebrow at the sudden merriment of the blonde. Nearby, Jeremie and Aelita whispered among themselves while William and Yumi chatted at the other side of the bench about their next class and how William _didn't_ study the night before for a quiz, "Such a wonderful day! The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, and everything looks so right in the world!"

It had been just a week since they lost Lyoko to XANA and everything had been changing drastically because of it. Usually they didn't have a break from the virus for such a long time, so each of them became a tad bit jittery in their own ways, sans William who would sometimes look so upset that Odd would distract him. Ulrich wouldn't know how bad the raven felt for slipping up and being a reason why they lost Lyoko but sooner or later he'd have to forgive himself for such a thing.

William rolled his eyes, his voice snapping Ulrich out of his musings, "Are you really that excited for the dance we aided with making? It isn't that much of a big deal."

"It is to me!" Odd grinned, clapping his hands together, "It's the main talk around the school, and since tomorrow is the night to party everyone's talking about who will go with who, and what special attractions we have planned for it!"

Ulrich raised his eyebrow, "What theme is this dance, exactly?" He only had a little bit of a memo, even with his best friend being one of the people helping to make it a big success.

"It's one of those regular dances," William answered instead, laying his arms along the top of the bench as he fell into a relaxed position, "There isn't much of a theme. It's plain and simple. You can either show up in a suit or dress or you could show up in your regular clothes. But from what I've been seeing, most people are going to dress in what they call "fancy" clothes. I swear, Odd over hyped the dance a bit too much for how it's going to be."

Said cat-boy stuck out his tongue, "Couldn't help it, I didn't want to fail one assignment because nobody showed up to the party!"

Yumi chuckled, "So, how long did you manage to get the dance to last?"

Odd rubbed his hands together, a cheeky grin on his face, "Since tomorrow is Saturday and the day after is Sunday, the party's allowed to last until midnight! Can you believe that?! Midnight! I'm glad Delmas was lenient about the time."

"Probably because you-know-who is his daughter and she'll be looking for a way to rule the dance," Ulrich responded, sipping on his soda. If Sissi pulled her damsel-in-distress attitude with her father it wouldn't be that hard to think that she'd be in charge of it somehow.

William raised his hand, "Well your honor, parties don't work that way," He then grinned sharply, "Plus, even if she sought to be in charge of it I would think the crowd would demand a boy to rule with her and as you know, she doesn't like most males at this school ever since you hooked up with Yumi. If the people of the dance want someone to "rule" over it per se, then we have many lovely couples like you two," He then snapped his fingers and pointed at both Ulrich and Jeremie, "To choose from!"

A blush ran to Jeremie's cheeks, "Wait a second!" He protested, "What are we talking about?"

Odd leaned against the bench, grinning impishly, "The fact that you and Aelita _have_ to be dating by now and the fact that you two have a chance to be "King and Queen" of tomorrow's dance!"

Aelita looked thrown for a loop as much as Jeremie did before, "We're talking about the dance?" She asked, "I thought we were talking to you guys about how far we've come with Lyoko."

"No, Aelita, I think we were whispering to each other," Jeremie responded.

Aelita then clapped her hands together, "Alright, now we'll address all of you with what we've done so far. Using the data we got from my father before he disappeared into the network, Jeremie and I have just about recreated Lyoko."

"Just like Líf and Lífþrasir after the events of Ragnarök!" Odd chirped.

Jeremie shrugged, "I guess you could compare it like that."

Aelita smiled, "But, we may be ready to recreate it tonight!"

Nodding with a pleased look, Jeremie continued on, "That's right, Aelita and I have worked on it every night for the last week!"

"Is that why you guys looked so tired?" Odd beamed, "I thought you two were at other parties having the time of your lives! Man, I was getting jealous." He suddenly sniffed the air and perked up, "Oh! Lunch is ready!" The blonde took off, leaving his friends at the bench.

Yumi sighed, "Let's go after him before he convinces Rosa that one of us didn't want to eat today and takes our helpings..." Knowing that his girlfriend was right, Ulrich hopped off of the bench and followed his friends to the cafeteria.

* * *

The gang grabbed their lunches (even after Odd complimented Rosa and took a bit more than one serving) and met at a table, "Hi Milly! Hi Tamiya!" Yumi greeted at the two girls sitting at a table by themselves, "You wouldn't mind if we sat here with you would ya?"

Both gazed at them before their eyes settled on Jeremie. After that, they gathered their plates and took off with a huff, "Are they still sulking?" Ulrich muttered. After hearing what Jeremie pulled on them, he wouldn't think they would hold a grudge against the genius. It surprised him that the journalists could even hold a grudge for that long in the first place.

"What do you think?"

Odd set his plate down, raising his finger as he sat, "Well you _did_ sneak out the bathroom window in the middle of an interview. And for ace reporters like them that's pretty insulting!"

Jeremie opened his soda, "Being mad at me isn't as bad as them being really mad at each other."

William raised an eyebrow, "And how did you manage that?"

"It wasn't exactly me, per se," The blonde genius sipped at his drink, "They had a massive argument over the newspaper while they were interviewing me."

Yumi suddenly looked delighted, "You mean the Kadic News is folded for good? That's the best news I've heard in-"

Odd shook his head, "It's not! I need to know who's going out with who today before I try to cut my losses!"

"You mean you don't have a date?" Ulrich snorted, nearly dropping his glass with slightly wide eyes, " _The_ Odd Della Robbia, the well known _player_ of Kadic Junior High School, doesn't have a _date?"_

Shuffling nervously in his seat, the cat-boy looked away, "W-Well... it's hard to focus on finding the right girl for tomorrow when you're focusing on the dance itself!"

Ulrich waggled his finger, deciding to call out his best friend for his excuse, "Excuses excuses, what's really made you stop?"

". . .Sam," Odd admitted, placing his face into the palm of his hands. He ignored his food completely as he put his hands on his cheeks and sighed dreamily, "I wish she was here. I would totally ask her to the dance, but since she's back at the coast I can't. Since I can't get her out of my head, I can't go up to another girl and ask them out to the dance. That's why I need the Kadic News to know who's going out with who before I ask out a girl that's already been asked out and earn myself detention over a fight with an overprotective guy over his lady love." He sighed, placing a hand over his heart, "Some men these days, what a shame."

Aelita laughed, "That's like saying you wouldn't if you were dating Sam and someone asked her out."

Immediately, Odd waved his hands frantically, "No no no, Aelita! You got it all wrong, I _don't_ like Sam like that! I like her as a friend!"

William leaned over to Jeremie and uttered in a semi-quiet voice, "Einstein, good sir, do you have an explanation for this madness our friend is spewing?"

Jeremie fixed his glasses and set his drink down. He folded his hands together and pointed to the purple clad blonde, "This, my friends," Jeremie spoke in a thick German accent, "Is what we call denial."

The table erupted with laughter and Odd, the only one who wasn't laughing, pouted instead, "All of you are jerks." He huffed, his cheeks a tomato red as he went back to devouring his food.

* * *

Odd grinned, "You two _have_ to be participating in the dance. Ulrich and Yumi, the couple that most thought would always be at each others throats rather than l-" The cat-boy spluttered as Ulrich elbowed him in the stomach. The brunette felt his cheeks were suddenly warm and from the corner of his eye, he caught Yumi's pale cheeks shining a cheery red. William exploded with laughter from his place seated on the floor next to the holo-sphere and with a quick kick he nearly silenced the male raven. William let out one last choked laugh before he flopped on the ground and watched them lazily.

"We will, it's just. . ." He rubbed the back of his head, "I really don't have a good outfit that I could say is better than I usually wear." Ulrich sighed, running his fingers through his hair, "Though, I'm glad you're helping me find one rather than leave me with fashion police over here, Yumi." Pointing his thumb at his best friend, he smiled lightly at his girlfriend.

"I'll have you know that some of the girls in our class have recommended me as a wonderful man who knows his fashion," Odd held a hand to his chest before motioning to William, "Ask him! I got him to wear something other than grey and red!"

Immediately the silver-eyed boy scowled, pulling himself back into a sitting position, "Just for a few days and that was because you _dyed the rest of my clothes!_ You're lucky my parents gave me money to shop for my own clothing for the next few weeks or else you would have found yourself in more trouble than you could deal with!"

Aelita started to laugh as the amber eyed blonde looked away, "Fine, I'll admit it. I _can_ be the fashion police but that's only for people I care about. I felt that other colors could make the ladies go for you."

William rolled his eyes, "I'll welcome the help when I need it, Odd."

"I'm all set," Jeremie commented, breaking up the small chatter between the group. The five immediately shared their attention to the blonde genius, giving nods as their confirmation. He pressed the enter key and a program appeared on the screen, "Here we go."

The group of six waited until Aelita looked down with a frown, "The data my father transmitted wasn't enough!"

Jeremie sighed, taking of his glasses, "I guess we must have been really crazy to think that we could recreate Lyoko-"

"Hey wait!" The geisha protested, stepping close to the screen. She pointed at a new window that had opened up, showing a red sphere that slowly gained blue circles to surround it after a few seconds. Something must have happened inside of the supercomputer, for the holo-sphere began to hum with new life and a digital map of a sector formed on the supercomputer.

"That's incredible!"

William moved away from the holo-sphere, a grin on his face, "It worked!"

Odd clapped his hands together, "Aelita, Jeremie, you two are gods!"

Jeremie immediately raised a finger, "Well, almost but not quite." The blonde genius clicked the enter key on the computer, allowing the holo-sphere to finally show off a map once again. It looked to be an empty shell of what was once Lyoko back before XANA started to delete the sectors... it reminded Ulrich of how it looked last week before XANA destroyed Sector Five, "For the time being all we've been able to recreate is Sector Five on Lyoko. We still have our work cut out for us to recreate the other sectors. But," He placed his glasses back on, "We should be able to do that soon."

Yumi moved the chair, a frown on her face, "Well you two shouldn't stay at it all night like you have for the past week. You two can wait a night," She then winked, "Or two. The dance should be a well deserved relaxation from all of this. Tonight get a good night's sleep, tomorrow you can come with us to the dance and see how it turns out!"

Odd grinned, swinging an arm over Aelita's shoulder, "What do you think of that, Princess? We'd be glad to see both Mr. and Mrs. Einstein at the dance, you know."

The pinkette smiled lightly, "Odd and Yumi are right Jeremie, we'll be needing a break before we finish recreating Lyoko. We might need clear minds to try to figure out and see what XANA's been up to since he attempted to stop us from fighting with it for good. We can get started on Sunday, there'll be no school then and we won't have to be worried about appearing for classes."

Jeremie opened his mouth to protest but one look at Aelita made him cave, "Ah, yeah... Well alright. A break wouldn't hurt."

"Come on you two, I bet you don't even have any good clothing for the dance," Odd grinned, "Let the fashionista guide you to the perfect outfits for a couple like yourselves!"

Yumi shook her head, "Odd, no. Ulrich and I will go with them to pick out outfits if they _need_ it. You already have your outfit picked for the occasion, so go back to school." Odd pouted, "You wouldn't want to lose time to find someone to bring to the dance, right?"

Odd paused, "Well. . . I-I guess so. . ."

Ulrich snorted, "Then you get going, we'll spend what's left of our Friday finding an outfit for tomorrow."

* * *

Sneaking out of Yumi's house was a pain the next morning. Hiroki would somehow _always_ sense when he was in the house and it took forever for Yumi to get him to go away. Since the duo didn't really tell her parents the honest truth about him staying with her some nights, they didn't want to be caught red-handed until the geisha found a way to explain it. Ulrich grunted to himself, waiting a block or two away from his girlfriend's house.

"Nice to see you got away," Yumi joked, halting her jog once she was next to him, "Did you get seen by anyone?"

"Nope," Ulrich chuckled, "Did you get the clothing from your room without Hiroki noticing?"

His girlfriend smiled, flashing the plastic bag at her side, "Of course." They took off to the school, being careful of crossing the streets and running into people, "So, what do you think of the new album the Subdigitals released?"

Yumi brought up a usual topic to talk about when Ulrich stayed at her home, today's wasn't any different than the rest. The only times where they skipped their general random topic talks on their walk to school was if a XANA attack happened the day before and they wanted to discuss their sides of the story or if they felt like something at school had become a bit concerning. Ulrich scrambled to remember when the album was released and quickly replied, "W-Well, I think I like all of the songs they released with that album."

She pursed her lips, "I think I like the seventh song."

Once again raking his mind to come up with a lie, Ulrich tried to throw out a casual number, "Uh, I like number two."

"Pfft," Yumi covered her mouth, quieting her sudden laughter, "Ulrich, you don't have to lie if you haven't heard the album yet." Heat swam to his cheek as he focused on the last street to Kadic. His girlfriend continued to laugh. After traveling through the gates at the front of the school, she commented, "The song you said you liked is Jeremie's favorite of the album. I would think you'd like number eleven. Y'know, the one you and Odd always loop the demo as your alarm back in your dorm?"

Immediately, Ulrich recalled the song, "Oh! They finally released the full version? I thought I asked Odd to let me know when that came out!"

"Well, it did come out only three days ago." She added, finger on her chin as they strolled through the courtyard. People chatted animatedly with one another, ignorant of the couple returning to campus from the outside, "He probably doesn't know about it either." As she said that, a certain purple clad blonde stormed out into the courtyard. Clutching papers in his hands, the boy stormed towards them with an upset look on his face.

"Can you guys believe it?!" Odd, for the first time in what felt like forever, sounded angry. He shoved the papers into Ulrich's hands and nearby, he felt the geisha peer over to see what he was talking about. Clear as day in the Kadic News headlines, it displayed Odd's iconic cheesy smile with the bold words of- " _Player of Kadic without date to dance! Ways to avoid getting stuck with him for the upcoming dance tonight!_ They've destroyed my reputation with this news!"

Yumi frowned, "I thought that Milly and Tamiya weren't angry with you, Odd."

Odd glowered, snatching the paper out of his best friends hands, "I thought so too." He turned on his heel and stormed close to one of the many buildings on campus. Milly and Tamiya sat on the bench there and obviously from the looks of it, the cat-boy was seeking answers. Ulrich shared a look with his girlfriend before the duo followed their friend, "Hey! I thought we were cool! How did you even hear of this in the first place?!"

"Well, Odd," The one and only daughter of the principal interjected from nearby, her face hidden in the newspaper. Ulrich frowned as she removed it from hiding her face, showing off a big smile, "My readers are _dying_ to know what your comment to this news'll be, so won't you grace us with it?"

"Sissi!" Jeremie interjected from afar, a frown on his face as William and Aelita lagged behind him, "Since when have you been involved with the Kadic News?"

She strolled to the genius, snapping her fingers in front of him, "Ever since I made myself editor-in-chief," She placed a finger on her chin, grin apparent, "Oh! And since all of you are together as usual, I'd like to ask Yumi a few questions for the next issue!" Milly and Tamiya frowned as the stood from the bench, moving to stand behind the "editor-in-chief". She frowned, glaring at them, "What are you two waiting for?! We're rolling!" Milly pulled out a camera as Tamiya pulled out a pencil and paper, "Well Yumi, our readers would really like to know how you and Ulrich are still together for so long! How do you two manage your relationship?"

Ulrich stepped out, frown on his face, "That's private, Sissi. Yumi doesn't need to answer that."

She turned to him, "So, does that mean you'll answer us instead?"

William raised his hand, "I think that's enough." Right on cue, the first bell of the day rang. Milly and Tamiya took the bell with stride, fleeing from their posts near the principal's daughter. Sissi glowered, crossing her arms. With one last look at the group, she fled to grab her things and head to class.

Before the rest of the group would split up, Aelita stared at the cat-boy, "You gonna be okay with what happened, Odd?"

"Well, obviously I know Sissi was the one who put that information on the newspaper about me," He shrugged, "I'll see what I can do about it later tonight. But for now, if she's pulling that card on me I'll get her back one way or another." A sharp grin found its way on the svelte teen's face, "After all, if that's the game she wants to play I have _many_ ways of continuing it. I'll see you guys later!" Odd fled, heading off into the nearest building.

Yumi shook her head, "How much detention do you guys think he'll get for whatever he's planning?"

As much confidence he had in the blonde for the whole situation at hand, knew that there'd be some consequences in the end, "A lot, depending on what he's going to do."

Suddenly groaning, William ran a hand through his hair, "I totally forgot about the quiz we're having, Yumi!" He shared a look with the geisha and took off, "I'll be accepting my fate with open arms, see all of you later." Yumi nodded to the brunette and quickly followed the other raven off to class.

Jeremie adjusted his glasses, "As much as I'd like to finish chatting about this new development, Odd had the right idea to head to class. I think we'll be late if we don't hurry off now."

* * *

"No no no, good buddy!" Ulrich grunted, staring at the sight of his best friend stealing his tie. Odd shook his head, waving a finger in the air, "Do you not know how tie a bow tie?"

Glowering, the brunette snapped, "Of course I wouldn't. My dad always had me tie an actual tie." He resisted to run his fingers through his hair. It took awhile to get his hair to stop sticking up after Odd had sneak attacked him and smeared gel in it, "It was always for the many parties he hosted. I was always surprised whenever he hosted it. It was always a monthly thing with him to know the people he worked with."

"Well, I would know how to tie one." Odd dressed in a purple dress shirt with a black waist coat on top of it. He also wore black dress pants and dark red shoes that stood out from the outfit itself. An yellow bow tie was around his neck as a small smile made its way onto his face. He straightened the tie around his best friends neck as he began to tie it, "My step-dad and mom always like to have big parties when their plays went well, obviously when the show made it big in Florence. My mom insisted I got to learn how to tie a bow tie because I would be the only one needing to know how since I'm the only boy she had." Suddenly he wore a whimsical smile, "The only reason I have this outfit at school is because Adele was trying to take my room before I left for school and she stuffed it in my bag."

Ulrich, on the other hand, had bought himself an outfit that consisted of a dark green shirt, some baggy black jeans and some black sneakers to match along with it. Once Odd finished with his bow tie, he backed away and touched the black cloth gingerly, "Thanks."

"No problem good buddy," Odd flashed a cheeky smile, practically radiating with energy, "So, the girls are in Aelita's dorm getting ready for the big fling. I left William to tend to the Einstein to make sure he was prepared for the dance and not trying to figure out an excuse to miss it. I'll be heading off now, I'll see you guys there." Winking, he opened the door and took off down the hall.

Sighing, Ulrich left his dorm. He locked it behind him after placing the key in his pocket and walked down the hall. After completing this action, he stopped at a familiar door and knocked on it, "Hey, you two done?"

The door opened, showing off his two friends. William dressed in a black jacket with a red shirt underneath, dark blue jeans and grey boots. Jeremie on the other hand wore the outfit Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi had picked for him, which was a sky blue dress shirt, white jeans and light blue dress shoes. His glasses gleamed in the light from the dorm as he replied, "Can we _please_ not stay until midnight for this dance?" The genius begged.

"I guess if you convince Aelita then you could," Ulrich shrugged, "It isn't really my decision."

William groaned, "But you won't have the full experience of the dance if you don't stay until then!"

"Eight to midnight sounds like a long time," Jeremie shot back, "Four hours of actual dancing? No way."

Walking out of the dorm, the raven huffed, "It isn't exactly like that. A dance is held usually as a social event, not just for dancing. Each of us has a choice to either go out to the dance floor and have fun or go talk among our peers." The trio made their way out of the boy's dorms, heading outside. The cold air of the night greeted them and with that, they began to walk to the gym where the dance would take place.

"I heard rumors of a real DJ showing up, is that true?" Ulrich asked.

William nodded, "When you have two hot-headed friends working together on a project, some things may seem over the top. Odd knew some musicians around here because of his family so he would figure out where a DJ would be and how to get him to work cheaply and I know a general store owner, he was happy to oblige me with a discount for some of the things inside the gym right now."

Jeremie weakly smiled, "So we'll be meeting Aelita and Yumi inside, right?"

"Of course, that's where said they would be earlier," Ulrich opened the doors, surprise making its way on his face. The whole gym was lit up with colors, it reminded the brunette of a rainbow. Many people gathered around, more than what happened with the other dance during the whole "Milly's bear being possessed by XANA" incident. Looks like Odd and William had talent when it came to parties, judging by how people we either dancing on the dance floor, gathered around the tables that held snacks and punch or plain out chatting at small tables.

Strolling in with what felt like confidence surrounding him, William managed to disappear into the crowds. Jeremie stood close by the samurai, obviously a bit out of his comfort zone with the whole situation. "Hey, Ulrich!" Yumi's voice managed to reach him, even through the loud music echoing around the room. She wore a grey jacket over a black sleeveless shirt, a dark red and black skirt with matching leggings and her usual black combat boots. She smiled at him, "Nice to see you finally made it."

"Wasn't that far away," Ulrich shrugged, matching smile on his face, "Glad to see you too." They shared a quick kiss as Aelita, who wore a black top with pink trimmings, a dark pink skirt with black leggings and matching heels.

The pinkette practically radiated in the environment around her as she grabbed Jeremie's arm, "Would you like to dance with me, Jeremie?"

As if a switch was flipped, the genius flashed a weak smile, "Of course, Aelita." Dragged into the swarm of students, the two disappeared.

Ulrich blinked at the scene, "Well, I'm surprised Aelita got him to do that so fast."

"Aelita always has that sort of charm to Jeremie, you know that," Yumi reminded him, "Now why don't we do the same?"

A smile found its way to Ulrich's face, "Alright, that sounds nice."

* * *

Time flew by as the dance continued on. Ulrich didn't even make notice of the time, enjoying the moment as he stayed by Yumi's side and chatted with her about random things. Sometimes they would take a break on the topics they brought up and would go out on the dance floor, but mainly they talked. Jeremie and Aelita found them later on and the four began to chat about something other than XANA and Lyoko. Ulrich enjoyed this small break they had.

"Hey, you guys!" William walked over to the group. He flashed a small smile at them, "Having a good time?" Ulrich stood near Yumi, drinking at a cup of punch. The pinkette was clinging to the blonde genius who looked far too happy than what he complained about earlier while he nibbled away at a cookie. Yumi was sitting in one of the many chairs spread around small tables inside the gym.

"The best!" Aelita chirped, "I'm glad we had this tonight."

Yumi stretched, "Yeah, me too. It's nice to have a break like this. From school and well. . . you-know-who too."

"I'm glad you guys are enjoying it, but I have a question for you all." With a concerned look, the raven voiced his question, "Have you guys seen Odd?"

Halting mid-bite of his snack, Jeremie raised an eyebrow, "No... why?"

The silver-eyed teen frowned, "I went looking for him and he's not around. He isn't answering his phone either. I'm kinda worried about him, with what happened earlier. Do you think he might have not went to the dance at all?"

"No, I seen him earlier," Ulrich rubbed his chin, "He didn't mention anything about missing the dance either. He was dressed up for it too-"

 _"YOU!"_ A furious shriek managed to be heard by the five over the loud beat of the music. Storming over to the group, Sissi stared at Yumi with something Ulrich couldn't place his finger on. Her clothing, what seemingly used to be a dark red dress with matching heels and orange leggings was torn to shreds with sticks and leaves in her hair, "You witch!" She screamed at Yumi and immediately, William stepped in to block the lunge from the principal's daughter, "Why do you have the nerve to be here after what you did?!"

Looking off-put, the geisha managed to reply, "What? I've been at the dance this entire time. Have you lost it, Sissi?"

Sissi glowered, backing away from William's grasp, "No. Have _you_ lost it, Yumi? You scared Milly and Tamiya with your crazy tricks! I don't even know what you did to Odd either since you threw me into a tree you _freak_!"

"I can confirm that Yumi was here the entire time with us but. . . what did happen to you, Sissi?" Jeremie asked, his hands raised in a placating manner.

"Well, Odd managed to stop Milly, Tamiya, and I from heading into the girls dorms." She began to recall, her body beginning to relax from her tense posture, "He tried to make me apologize for what happened and I said no. He then managed to get Milly and Tamiya to quit working with me, those traitors. By then, you," She pointed at Yumi, "Waltzed over there without the outfit you're wearing now on. You tried to make Odd go with you into the forest for some reason by grabbing his arm. I stepped in and told you to stop when Odd protested and told you no, but by then Milly and Tamiya tried to stop you first. You shot purple electricity at them and threw me into a tree. But by then, Odd managed to take off somewhere else and I'm here to try to tell my dad on you, you freak!"

The gang exchanged looks, trying to figure out what had really happen. It was quite clear, but the motive of their old "friend" was completely unknown, "Well Sissi," Ulrich commented, "I think I saw your father heading to his office earlier."

Obviously it was a lie, but the raven haired girl fell for the bait, "Oh thank you Ulrich," She smiled at him, "I'm glad you see that Yumi isn't all that!" She took off, fleeing from the building as Ulrich grimaced. Waiting a few seconds, the gang took off and headed into the forest.

"XANA's back!" Jeremie immediately cried once they were away from the loud music of the dance, running to the boiler room where the other entrance to the sewers laid, "Of all times, with a specter of Yumi no less!"

Yumi frowned, the first to arrive to the door as she pushed it in and allowed them all in, "My question is why it would take the form of me? Usually a specter would possess someone like Jim or heck, even Milly and Tamiya themselves! But why look like me?" She yanked the sewer door open, fleeing down the steps. The rest followed suit and soon they were running down one of the sides of the sewers.

"Better question is why XANA would go after Odd in the first place?" Aelita reminded, "When he sends a specter into the real world, it's usually after me to bring me to Lyoko. It must be changing its game plan for some reason."

Ulrich frowned, "Maybe we'll figure this out once we save Odd from XANA." No one else threw in another comment, leaving them to travel to the factory in silence.

* * *

"There's no one here," William muttered as the elevator doors opened to the supercomputer room.

Jeremie ran to the super computer, a frown etching itself onto his face, "I can see that. Odd and something else are in Sector Five but I can't tell whatever that thing is. And I don't like that at all." He then glanced at the four warriors, "You four head to the scanner room, be careful. I don't know where that Yumi specter could be."

Ulrich pressed the elevator button, allowing the machine to move them down one more floor. As soon as the doors opened, Ulrich took to the right scanner. Yumi went to his left and William flocked to the middle. It looked like Aelita was going to wait until the scanners cleared up again. The scanner doors closed in front of him, blocking sight of the room. Cold, frigid winds picked up as Jeremie's voice managed to filter through, _"Transfer: Ulrich. Transfer: William. Transfer: Yumi."_ He then felt himself being picked up, just only for a moment, _"Scanner: Ulrich. Scanner: William. Scanner: Yumi."_ The sensation of nothingness consumed him as the final words sent him away, _"Virtualization."_

His vision gave away from the scanner, allowing him to see the familiar blue and white of Sector Five. Landing was like second nature to him and Ulrich watched as Yumi and William landed close by him. After waiting a moment longer, Aelita landed in front of the trio, _"You four have to take the corridor right in front of you."_

"Is there still a key we have to trip?"

Aelita shook her head, "No, we got rid of that procedure once we recreated Sector Five."

William, instead of continuing along with the conversation, was simply staring at the giant sword he carried. He looked hesitant about something until he finally spoke, "Uh, Jeremie? Could you see if I can disperse my sword in any way so I don't have to carry it as I run?"

 _"Well, I haven't looked into what powers you have. I can do that, but for right now you guys have to make it to the Core Zone. Once you reach it, I can guide you to Odd and whatever that thing with him is."_

"Roger that, Einstein," Following his friends, Ulrich took off down the only path presented to them. It was silent as they all took in the familiar blue blocks around them. William, even when carrying his big sword, managed to lead ahead of them, followed by the samurai himself then the two girls who kept close to one another. The brunette still couldn't shake off his worry about the sector, it always managed to make him feel uneasy.

 _"You guys better step on it, it looks like Odd and whatever that thing is are getting farther away!"_ As soon as Jeremie's words reached them, William stopped his run once they reached another room. Chocolate brown eyes caught sight of the "thing" and he froze in place. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yumi and Aelita stare with wide eyes at the thing. Purple fled from the room, but another thing stayed in the room.

The monster spun on its heel, facing the four. It wore a long, white kimono with red splotches all over, a thick black bow tied at its middle, with dark grey leggings and slim, red sandals. Everything about it, it looked a lot like-

"J-Jeremie!" Aelita managed to recover before all of them, "That thing you're seeing on the map, i-it's a clone of Yumi!"

 _"A what!?"_

Bowing at them only for a moment, the copy of the geisha flashed a grin at them. What stood out in the stark, white and black paint covering the clone's face was its eyes that were colored a ruby red with the black eye of XANA replacing the irises. Without another warning, it snapped its fingers and suddenly, groans echoed around the room.

 _"Creepers are closing in with. . . something else! Guys, be careful with what's coming!"_

The clone of Yumi had fled down the same hall that Odd must have ran into before, as the Creepers presented themselves just a moment after. They groaned, followed by a streak of dark orange flying down from one of the monsters perches. The monster was a familiar sight to Ulrich, as the boy yanked his katana out immediately, "Back for more, copy?" He snapped, staring at the sight of himself dressed in a orange and black samurai outfit that matched his own. It frowned, persimmon orange staring at chocolate brown.

The copy of him yanked out its own katana, a grin suddenly making its way onto its pale face. "We have to split up!" Aelita immediately shouted, her hands alight with her weapons, "We can't leave that Yumi copy alone to chase down Odd!"

 _"Right, you and Yumi go after it Aelita. William, Ulrich, you two have to clean up over here and take care of that copy. I'll see how XANA's suddenly springing copies without the use of an activated tower to create them."_

Ulrich charged at his clone, katanas clashing against one another. Out of the corner of his right eye, he saw his girlfriend and the pink elf run off into the same tunnel Yumi's copy fled down before. William raised his sword nearby, staring at the Creepers that refused to come closer to him. Instead, the brown monsters took to shooting at the sword wielder and using the big sword to his advantage, the silver-eyed boy took to absorbing the lasers.

 _"William! I got it! There's one ability that you have, but it'll help you a lot! Just say the words, "Supersmoke" and you'll see what happens!"_

Sounding surprised from afar, Ulrich barely managed to hear the raven say the words before black smoke ran past him, up a wall and next to a Creeper. Distracted only for a second, the brunette watched with wide eyes as the boy manifested next to the Creeper from the black smoke and stabbed it, destroying the monster, "Hey, this ability is pretty cool!"

Ulrich let out a shout, flying back from a sudden kick. The black and orange clad samurai stormed forward, his red katana nearly striking him. He rolled over just in time, lifting his own katana to stab at the clone's chest until- _"Phase."_ The voice was _just_ like his own, except it sounded. . . different. Ulrich couldn't put his finger on it, instead watching with wide eyes as his sword went through the clone like he didn't even exist.

The clone dawned a wicked grin, lifting his left hand and socked him right in the face. Ulrich flew back into the nearest wall, his katana sliding to the other side of the room. "Jeremie!" He shouted to the sky, bringing himself to stand once more, "What did that clone just do!?"

 _"I'm scanning both it and the Yumi clone right now and-"_ Abruptly, the genius went quiet.

"Jeremie?!"

 _"Ulrich from what the supercomputer is saying, that clone in front of you... is **you."**_

"M-Me?" Ulrich pointed at himself, staring down the lookalike of himself. As if it heard Jeremie's words, the clone's wicked grin turned downright feral as it raised its weapon. . . with another katana somehow in its other hand.

Jeremie sounded thrown off as much as the brunette did, _"Just_ _finish it off and save Odd. . . then I'll tell all of you what that means."_

William appeared next to him in the same black cloud of smoke that swam around the room, holding Ulrich's sword. Handing it to him, the raven stared at the monster, "Here, let's do this." The clone charged at them as Ulrich took his katana back. Swinging it, red and blue met each other in a usual clash, followed by the clone shrieking as William dug his sword into the clone's side. It exploded in dark orange pixels but at the last second, it swung its other katana straight into William's head. Erupting in blue pixels, the Doppelsöldner was devirtualized.

Ulrich activated his super sprint, taking off down the nearest corridor. "Has anything happened to them, Jeremie?"

 _"Aelita's already been devirtualized by Yumi's copy and the real Yumi's in a telekinesis fight over Odd!"_

Staring at the sky for a moment, the brunette let out a quiet, "Oh," Before continuing on with his extra burst of speed. He only halted his run once he saw his girlfriend pressing her fingers to her head with a white glow around her and across the room her copy had a dark red glow surrounding her. Odd was suspended in the middle, staring at Yumi with something akin to fear in his eyes.

"Yumi! Come on, I believe you can beat her! Go Yumi, go!" He cheered, then paused after his amber eyes settled on Ulrich's form, "Nice to see you there, good buddy. It's been a weird night!"

Unable to continue on with Odd's chit chat, the samurai allowed his super sprint to consume him and charged at the geisha lookalike. She, unlike Yumi, had her eyes open and stared at the brunette before calling out in a sultry tone, " _Come on Ulrich, you wouldn't want to do that now would you_?" Just like his own copy, it had her voice. By the looks of it, as she bit her lip with a frown on her face as she cocked her head to the side, _"Why do you want to hurt me, Ulrich dear?"_

He found himself stopping in his tracks, staring down at his hands. Why _was_ he going to attack her, again? In fact, why were they even on Lyoko again? They-they were at a dance before weren't they-? "ULRICH!" Yumi's scream snapped him back to reality and as he spun in place, but by the time he looked at where she used to be his girlfriend was gone in the blue pixels of devirtualization.

"Ugh!" The samurai clutched at his head, "What was that?!"

"Ulrich, if you have the time I suggest you _try to stop this crazy chick!_ " Odd's voice echoed and as quick as it reached his ears, Ulrich's mindset snapped back into place. He was here to save Odd, he wasn't supposed to be daydreaming nor recall what he was doing _before_ being virtualized onto Lyoko.

 _"Ulrich, the Yumi clone is taking Odd straight to the Dome Area!"_

"On my way there, Einstein!" Ulrich saluted the sky, trying following where the monster had ran away with his best friend. A laser slammed into his arm, stopping him before he could go down the exit. Creepers groaned around him and the boy clicked his tongue, clutching his katana with both hands as he prepared to fight them.

 _"ULRICH!"_ Jeremie's voice stopped him from running at one of the brown monsters, _"You have to get to Odd immediately! I-I don't know what XANA's up to with Yumi's cone but. . . something's being decrypted onto the supercomputer and it can't be good!"_

Glaring one last time at the Creepers, Ulrich used his super sprint and ran away from them. Staring at the back of XANA's clone, the samurai raised his katana to meet her back. What stopped him was a heavy pressure that nearly slammed him into the ground as the geisha spun around, a twisted smile on her face. She side stepped, showing what was happening to the blonde.

He was sitting in a kneeling position, his back to the two as white glowed into the wide, blue room of Sector Five's Outer Sphere. _"What do you think you're doing, love?"_ It chided, waving a finger in the air. The sultry voice of hers was back and Ulrich tried to ignore the sweetness that radiated from it, _"I'm just trying to cure Odd of his little problem, y'see?"_

"Whatever you're doing to him isn't good," Ulrich growled.

 _"How would you know, deary?"_ She strolled to him, kneeling down with a sick smile on her face, _"You don't even know what it is. Neither do we, but it's always a lovely surprise to see what it is. Buried deep inside his coding, he possesses something unique that if we figure out what it is. . . maybe it'll even help us with our end goal."_

He couldn't fall for that voice of hers. It called to him like a lovely sirens voice, trying to soothe the rage that he tried to keep as a shield. Whatever the virus did to this clone made it hard to fight her, either from the telekinesis or her voice ability, "Sorry," He apologized, channeling what was left of his energy to his right hand. He raised it, stabbing her straight in her chest. The clone's form disappeared in red pixels, "But what XANA wants _isn't_ what we want."

 _"Ulrich! Try to stop Odd!"_

Only having a moment to recover, Ulrich stumbled along the blue ground of the sector. He ran to his friend, finally able to see his face. Odd looked so _pained_ , like whatever he was doing was torturing him. Swallowing, the brunette could only think of one thing to do. With a swipe of his sword, the katana claimed its next victim as the cat-boy vanished off of Lyoko.

"Jeremie!" Ulrich called, "D-Did Odd appear in the scanners?"

Silence consumed the empty blue space, allowing fear to bubble up in his stomach, _"Yes Ulrich, he's unconscious but fine. The process reached five percent and it looks like it isn't going down either. I'll bring you in."_

* * *

The supercomputer room was in complete silence, sans the humming of the machine itself and Jeremie's vigorous typing. Odd was propped up against the wall closest to the elevator, still unconscious as Jeremie continued to look at the program that had appeared when the XANA-Yumi had placed the cat-boy in the state Ulrich found him in, "What I can already conclude from this incident is that whatever program is inside Odd, XANA wants it." The blonde began.

"Do we know what the program exactly does?" Aelita piped in.

"No... we're as clueless as XANA, if what Yumi's clone was saying is true."

William frowned, siting against the holo-sphere, "What about what you said earlier. Y'know, with the whole Ulrich and Yumi clone situation?"

The genius sighed, spinning his chair so he could face them all, "The supercomputer scanned the two as you all fought them, it claimed that they were real Ulrich and Yumi just. . . different. It's like XANA copied every single bit about you two and crafted them to suit its use. I'm scared that if we leave them to linger with XANA and not investigate this further, it may be a repeat with what happened when XANA stole Aelita's memories."

"You mean. . ." Yumi began, her eyes wide.

"I mean that if we don't get the data back from the copies XANA created of you two, that you'll die if we do something heinous and destroy whatever houses them. We're playing with fire because of it, and I'm lost because I don't know _how_ it could have gained that information-"

"Me." William pointed to himself, his eyes shut and shoulders hunched, "My sword glowed green when it sliced into Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi when it possessed me before it destroyed Lyoko. It didn't slice into Odd or myself, but it touched all three of them."

Aelita swallowed, bringing her hands to hug herself, "That means XANA has a copy of me too, if your prediction is correct."

Jeremie sighed, "This is such a mess," He muttered, "XANA has a new way of toying with us with the copies of you two and possibly Aelita as well and by judging their new abilities you claimed they have Ulrich-"

"My copy allowed my katana to phase right through him, and Yumi's almost had me hypnotized just by talking to me."

"-that means XANA's upgrading them as well." The blonde continued, "I wouldn't know how he created all of these abilities just in a _week_ as well, maybe we've been underestimating our foe all along."

 ** _Beep! Beep! Beep!_**

"Huh!?" Jeremie spun back to the computer, a frown immediately on his face.

"What's that, Jeremie?" Ulrich asked.

"I set out to comb through the decryption of whatever program is inside of Odd, and it looks like out of the five percent that was accessed. . . there's a video." The blonde motioned with his hand and the four quickly surrounded the supercomputer. Once they were there, he clicked on the icon and it began to play.

 _"Okay, your turn Milly!" The girl was suspended up above, trying to cling to the tilted, broken wood that once used to be a floor. She stared down at the camera with raw fear in her eyes._

 _"No, Odd! I'll never make it!" She cried._

 _The cat-boy's voice attempted to assure her, "Sure you will! Come on!" The ground began to rumble as the red-head screamed from above. She let go, sliding down the wooden floor. Odd's hand appeared in front of himself, snagging the child's wrist to pull her close once she made it onto the next floor._

"Are we. . . watching something from Odd's perspective?" Yumi voiced her concerns.

Grimacing, Ulrich nodded, "It looks like it. The scene they're in. . . whatever's happening is familiar." He muttered to himself as it continued to play. What was this? And why was this scene a little piece of the program inside Odd?

 _"Good going girls! Now let's get out of here!" Milly and Tamiya ran with Odd, their pants easy to hear. Ahead of them gravel crumbled left and right and sometimes the two girls would press together close to the purple clad teen to avoid the rubble._

 _A shrill ring echoed from the video and a familiar phone entered their sights. Odd answered it and the voice was filled with worry but yet calm at the same time,_ " _Odd! Did you make it out yet?"_

 _"No sir, Einstein. You have to hurry with fixing Aelita's bug or else we'll die!"_

"This. . . This is from that time where XANA attacked by causing earthquakes," Jeremie concluded, his voice weak, "But I don't remember this conversation at all."

 _"Pfft,"_ _Jeremie's voice radiated with cockiness_ , _"With your little program, I'm sure that I'll fix it and get you all out of there in a jiff. Don't worry about it."_

" _Jeremie, just because I know things you don't doesn't mean I know everything." Odd scolded_ , _"Don't think that I know how this ends because I don't. Like time and time before, I've lived different versions of this but I never knew how you guys did it."_

 _"But you do know that everyone gets out of it safe and sound, right?"_

 _"Jeremie. . ."_

 _"Don't worry about it, just give me a little more time and everything will be okay. I don't need your silly warnings right_ _now."_ The familiar buzz of an ended phone call filtered through the speakers of the supercomputer room.

"I... what?" Jeremie ran out of words to say, "I don't remember things happening like that. From what I recall, Odd disconnected from me way earlier than that." The vision of the video showed rocks in front of an exit.

 _The ground shook once again and Milly's scream echoed nearby. Swiftly, Odd stared at Milly. . . who was petrified as concrete began to fall on top of her._

 _"MILLY!" The purple clad blonde charged and quickly grabbed her arm to throw her near Tamiya and Kiwi. She fell next to her friend and Kiwi began to howl loudly, his barking going insane._

 _"ODD!" Both girls screamed as the cat-boy looked up, staring at the descending gravel. His vision was swallowed in darkness once the gravel slammed onto him._

Abruptly, the video ended in pitch black. There seemed to be nothing more to play as the five stared at the screen with mixed emotions. "What just happened?" William managed to ask, bringing his hands to his face in an attempt to process what he just saw.

Ulrich pinched himself, biting back his yelp so he wouldn't startle his friends. It looks like what he saw on that screen wasn't a dream. But if that wasn't a dream, then. . . did Odd really die there? And yet, how was he alive with them now?

"That was something you didn't need to see." Odd's voice cut in from afar. All five snapped their gazes to the cat-boy, who leaned against the wall for support. His amber eyes were dark and for the first time, Ulrich felt like he didn't know who his best friend was.

Aelita stepped forward, although hesitantly, "Odd, what did you mean by what you said in the video? With what you claimed to know things that we didn't?"

The cat-boy began to answer, his voice soft, "I would rather go insane than relive a situation like that all over again, I don't want to say anything about it. Jeremie kinda shattered my trust with telling you guys about what I know so, sorry about that."

Jeremie was quick to respond, "Odd! That was a different me, a different time as well. I wouldn't risk a life to pull whatever I did again! That situation will never happen again. Just please, we want to help you Odd."

Odd's cold expression immediately soured into one of sorrow, "That's the thing. Time and time before that incident, I would tell you guys what's happening to me. But every time I did, someone would die because of our carelessness. I don't want to say a thing because I don't want anyone to die because of me." He sighed, "Look, some things you guys know about me are because of what has been happening to me. My weird night habits," He waved to Ulrich, "All because of this. My journal is what I write in to try to vent away my emotions about this problem."

"What _is_ the problem?" Ulrich stormed to his friend, placing his hands on his shoulders. The blonde flinched but didn't back away, "With that video and all, something has to be going on here. Odd, we just watched you _die_ in a XANA attack and yet you're here."

"I can't tell you!" The svelte teen still protested, clenching his eyes shut, "I can't! Cause if I did you'd die! Someone would die and it'd be all my fault! We'd become too reckless and cost a life!"

"What about yours?" Yumi followed suit, standing close to the brunette and the amber eyed boy, "Don't you care about your own life? Whatever is happening to you is controlling you Odd. Have you died many times before what we just saw?"

"Just tell us Odd." William murmured, strolling on by to become close to the trio, "We want to help you."

Odd's body shuttered and it looked like he was holding back a torrent of tears behind his eyes. He continued to speak somehow through the lump in his throat, "I already gave you an answer," He attempted to choke back his sorrows, " _I just **can't.**_ **"**

"We want to help you," Aelita piped in and soon both her and Jeremie stood close to the cat-boy as well, "You have answered our questions, yes but. . . I want to vow for all of us that we won't become reckless with what you say. Whatever has happened in the past for you won't happen again. All you have to do is tell us Odd. _Please_."

"I-It's a program inside me," Odd spat once a tear left his eye. After that one, the rest flowed down his cheeks like an unbroken stream, "F-From all the t-trips I had." He sniveled, bringing his arm to wipe at the growing snot from his nose. He looked miserable as he continued on, "Hopper m-made it for himself. He just t-took the wrong scanner and I-I got it instead-" Sobbing, he couldn't continue on.

"Take a deep breath," Ulrich gently coached him, "Try to relax, okay? Nothing bad will happen, I promise you." Slumping forward, Ulrich hugged his best friend as the blonde cried into his chest. He took in the broken sobs of his friend, the way he suddenly broke after that single promise. He didn't want to lose everything again, it looked like.

For what felt like an eternity Odd continued to bawl against him until finally, the boy backed away from him. His eyes were swollen and puffy, as his nose kept sniffling to try to even out his breathing. He looked like a train wreck but Ulrich refused to make a joke on it. The moment was serious and even if he wanted to cheer up his best friend, right now couldn't be the time to do it, "I don't know what he called it. But all I know is that this is the second time I've made it so far and changed so much," Odd mumbled through his scratchy throat, the words almost unintelligible from how softly he spoke, "I lost track of how many times I died on our adventures to save Aelita and destroy XANA. But some time loops stand out from the rest and I guess whatever that program was showed one of them to you."

Unable to say anything, Ulrich watched over his best friend as the blonde hugged himself. With what he just admitted, the brunette felt horrible for his best friend. He died more than once and. . . "That means, you've been living our adventures time and time again?" Jeremie noted, his voice soft and unsure.

Blood shot amber eyes stared at crystal blue, "Yeah. I only made it this far one time before and that was my run through. That time, we defeated XANA but at the cost of Hopper. I didn't even know I had the program in me until another foe _kinda_ killed me and I wound up back in the middle scanner after the first time we were on Lyoko. The man's name is Professor Tyron and he'll become a menace to us sometime soon. I can't exactly recall when because well..." He tapped his head, "Living so many times makes you forget some of the little things."

"I'm sorry to ask but. . . did you face a copy of Ulrich and Yumi in your original timeline?" Everyone shot glares at the Einstein, who winced but didn't back down.

Odd shook his head, "No. . . not at all. We actually faced a friend of ours instead of copies." He then stared directly at William, "Which was you."

"M-Me?" Suddenly, the raven looked thrown for a loop.

"In my first time, XANA took William and turned him against us during his first trip on Lyoko. Then he used him to attack us and try to get Aelita thrown into the digital sea to lure Hopper out of it and try to finish him off." Odd clapped his hands together, "But I think I _do_ know why XANA got this power in only a week." Motioning between William and himself, he continued on, "We created a video game, well we did before the computer was destroyed. I thought it was some kid, but if XANA did steal the data from it and destroy my laptop then he'd have extra abilities to give away. Like intangibility, siren's voice, data drain and many more, I made those."

"Data drain to collect data from all three of us from William when he possessed him," Yumi murmured weakly, "Intangibility for the Ulrich clone and a siren's voice for my own..."

"That means XANA _did_ steal the data and destroyed my laptop." Frowning, Odd crossed his arms, "There are still a few weaknesses to those abilities but I bet he doesn't know about them. But I do, I created the abilities so I would put weaknesses on them so they wouldn't seem overpowered."

"So the program, once you die will send you back in time to the first day you get devirtualized from the scanners?" Aelita asked.

Odd nodded, "Pretty much, Aelita. It's kinda scary reliving so many days all over again. I thought I was going insane a few times, like I was in hell or something." He then smiled, although it looked pretty weak, "But. . . I trust you guys. If you keep that promise, then I think everything will be okay. We just have a bit of a situation on our hands that's different than my original timeline, right?"

"Right Odd, we have to get Ulrich, Yumi, and possibly Aelita back their stolen codes," Jeremie counted off his fingers, "We have to save you from your time looping problem, and destroy XANA. It isn't an impossible list."

"Wait, you're going to look into my problem?" The blonde with a purple splotch sounded mystified, like it wasn't supposed to be on the agenda.

Ulrich shook his head, sometimes the cat-boy was just an idiot even if he's been reliving this part of his life so many times, "Of course we would, you dummy. You're our friend, even if you've been through the same problems over and over again. When XANA is defeated and whenever we deal with this Tyron guy and defeat him, we'll all be free of this together. No matter what."

"We promise this to you, Odd." Yumi added. The svelte teen looked at the floor, a sad smile on his face.

"T-Thanks you guys." Tears overflowed in his eyes and a laugh left his best friend through the misery of what happened that night, "You're the best friends I could ever have."

"Now I think a return to the past is in order," Voicing his concerns, the Einstein walked back to the supercomputer.

Snorting, the cat-boy chuckled, "Yeah, I guess because of the whole Sissi, Milly, and Tamiya seeing the Yumi specter situation."

"Not just that. You didn't have time to enjoy the dance because of this mess as well. I heard you worked hard on it so I think it'd be a waste if one of the "grand schemers" didn't have fun as well." Jeremie joked, his fingers gliding over the keys. Looking back at his friends, he then proclaimed the familiar phrase, " _Return to the past, now!"_

The room exploded in the white light Ulrich was used to seeing. The cold feeling gnawed at him until it swallowed him whole. By then, he saw the familiar walls of his dorm. Odd beamed at him, dressed up for the dance that was technically hours ago, "Why don't we head on down and have some fun?" The brunette grinned.

"I'd like that!" Odd flashed an impish grin, "Then after that can we prank Sissi? She still deserves it after what she pulled earlier."

Tapping his chin, Ulrich made it look like he was thinking it over. Of course he wasn't though as he responded, "As long as she's rainbow colored before one-in-the-morning."

"Deal!" Laughing with one another, both boys walked out the dorm. Watching over his best friend as he practically radiated with energy for the dance, Ulrich silently remembered what he told them. Then, he promised to himself he would make sure he didn't become reckless with knowing the blonde knew more information than they did. Ulrich didn't want to ruin him, as he believes that previous hims may have done before. Ulrich wanted to be there for his friend, through good and bad. And in the end he wanted to make sure that Odd didn't feel like he was alone. Because the cat-boy deserved to know his friends are there to help him, no matter what.

As he walked with William, Jeremie and his best friend, Ulrich stared up into the star laden sky. With a smile, he watched them twinkle with their bright lights and somehow knew that in the end, everything would be okay.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I'd like to thank you all for reading this story and supporting it. Without it, I think I wouldn't have finished this. I tried to make sure I didn't leave any loopholes because I wasn't so sure that I would ever make a sequel to this story. As of right now, this story has 535 views. I want to thank story maker, Anonymous, Musical Ninja and TheFullmetalRaven for their reviews because they made my day and gave me the right motive to finish this story. I also want to thank Anime-Niakz, Code-Kya, Ezilo, Musical Ninja, Neos the Final Builder and toomanyFandoms18 for placing this story in their favorites list. Also, I want to thank those who followed this story which are Allen Ux Ultor, Anime-Niakz, Code-Kya, Dzeshik Si, Ezilo, FMA lover912, J flood, Musical Ninja, StarGazer Gale, The Arcticourt Spellwright, TheFullmetalRaven, WolfMoonSky, crazysnowdragon, rubikhandy0707, and toomanyFandoms18. All of you are lovely readers and without you, I probably wouldn't have decided to continue this story along. I hope you enjoyed reading this little series and have a wonderful day.

Thanks to all from the Feeling of Love and Hate.


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